A discussion of whether the City of Seminole should allow “cannabis friendly” events to take place on public property or disallow them drew a nearly standing room only crowd to Tuesday’s city council meeting.

Dozens of people, many of them pro-cannabis, turned out for the meeting, which packed the Goldie Barnett Conference Room of the city library to near capacity. Several in the audience took the podium to encourage the council to allow the use of medical marijuana at certain public events.

At last month’s meeting, City Manager Steve Saxon asked the council for guidance on such events, as a proposed cannabis-related golf tournament, which was held in Seminole last year, was reportedly denied the opportunity for a repeat performance. It is unclear who passed on the tournament, but it was never brought before the city council for a vote.

Stephanie Cooper of Pharm House of Shawnee told the council she had the tournament at the Jimmie Austin Golf Course in 2020 and it raised $7,000 for Family Services of Shawnee. The event was held in Seminole because the original venue in Shawnee closed over COVID-19 concerns. Shawnee declined it this year, and she took the event to Choctaw after being told no in Seminole.

Tuesday’s meeting agenda included “discussion of a possible ordinance regarding public medical marijuana events within the City of Seminole.” While no action could legally be taken because the agenda included only discussion of the matter, the council agreed to form an exploratory committee and present a proposal to the council.

Stephanie Davis, a resident of Seminole and a cannabis advocate, was the first to address the council about allowing medical marijuana events in the city.

“I want to talk about cannabis events here in the city. We’re not asking to be able to smoke in any municipal buildings. But we would like to support events like the most recent charity event that was not allowed to have medical marijuana consumption on site, which was an outside event,” Davis told the council. “This event has since been moved to Choctaw, along with all of the tourism that goes along with the event that would have been held in Seminole.”

Davis said that one in ten Oklahomans are registered medical marijuana patients, and they want to be able to enjoy events with their friends “just like everyone else and be able to access their medicine while in attendance.”

“I would like to encourage city leaders and the council to get more educated on cannabis because this industry was voted on by 57 percent of the voters in Oklahoma, including 51 percent in Seminole County voters…and it’s not going away,” Davis said. “We want city ordinances to be updated to include medical marijuana consumption in any form at city parks at outside events,” she added.

“One of the questions I had from last month, that I think was really the issue as to why the event was cancelled, was insurance. Do we have any updates on insurance coverage?” Mayor Jeff Griffin asked Saxon.

“OMAG (Oklahoma Municipal Assurance Group) is still struggling, we expect that they will have a cannabis exclusion – they basically have said that much - but as of today, it is not present in our policy,” Saxon replied.

Cory Crabtree, Ward Three councilman, said those who addressed the council were “very enlightening” and he has “no problem with someone who wants to use medical marijuana in the correct way.”

“Whether it’s against my personal moral beliefs or not, I wouldn’t do it. But I’m not going to be angry with anyone who wants to do that. I can’t control what everyone else does on their own time,” Crabtree said. “Changing a whole city ordinance to just allow it citywide is kind of hard but understand it’s a stairstep. If you had a permit you could apply for, that would at least give us the opportunity to see where you’re having it and who’s involved. It would give us time to say, ‘okay, this is legit.’”

Saxon voiced concerned about smoking on city property, because the city has received grants from the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust (TSET) for several projects including lighting in the city park. In consideration of the grants, the city passed strict ordinances that ban smoking at any public facility.

The City of Muskogee has reportedly passed an ordinance allowing for open cannabis consumption, and Griffin said the first step is to review what that city has passed. From there, a committee consisting of community members and city council members would be formed to present a proposal to the council at a future date.