Attention on ‘ghost owner’ investigations as criminal cannabis case has tie to Tulsa law firm | Crime-and-courts

Crimes include growing marijuana, owning a controlled substance without a tax stamp, and most importantly, trying to break the US Controlled Dangerous Substances Act. Although cannabis is legal for medicinal use in Oklahoma, it remains a List I substance under federal law.

OBDDD spokesman Mark Woodward declined Friday to comment on the case, which attracted new attention this week after Tulsa attorney Ron Durbin posted about the situation on Facebook.

Durbin called on medical marijuana companies to make sure their papers were in order.

“This is a big, big, big, big mess. And I think there will be a much bigger story here, ”said Durbin on Friday afternoon. “She and Woodward are working on something much, much bigger.”

Woodward said the agency is in the “aggressive investigation” of what he termed “fraudulent business structures” used to bring extra-state interests to Oklahoma and circumvent the state’s two-year residency requirement for controlling interests in medical marijuana companies .

“It does this by paying ‘ghost’ owners to put their names on licenses to claim ownership when they actually have no knowledge or real legal involvement in the grower,” said Woodward; he did not confirm the names of the people examined.