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The Senate Rules Committee voted unanimously Tuesday to send the legislation known as the Unity Bill to the full Senate for approval. Sen. Julie Daniels said House Bill 2612 has already been approved by the House. She said it creates the safety and regulatory framework necessary for Oklahoma’s medical marijuana industry after voters approved State Question 788 last June.

Daniels said the Unity Bill provides need provisions like testing, labeling and workplace safety in the medical marijuana business. She said many things were actually deleted from the bill. The Unity Bill had about 200-pages worth of material and they reduced it to 75 pages. With that in mind, Daniels said Oklahoma legislators are well aware that there will be other questions and issues that will need to be resolved. There will be changes in the statutes as the years go by, she said.

Daniels said Oklahoma legislators have had to play catch-up some with a medical marijuana business that has already opened its doors. She said it was good to get House Bill 2612 through this early after spending many months looking over medical marijuana issues in a bipartisan, bicameral task force which began meeting last summer. This will help people understand more of the rules they need to follow. The Unity Bill could come to the Senate Floor for a vote next Monday.