Marijuana business not up to fire code goes up in flames

Tanner DeLeon/ KFOR
·2 min read
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EDMOND, Okla. (KFOR) — Marijuana has come a long way in Oklahoma, but that doesn’t mean problems aren’t still arising.

A business went up in flames Thursday morning, but investigators found something more precedent in the ashes.

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Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics (OBN) agents responded to the fire this morning in Logan County. Turns out the marijuana business did not have an OBN registration or documents showing the business met fire code.

“State law says that before they even open day one, they have to meet all fire codes,” Mark Woodward, PIO for OBN said.

A law in place to prevent fires like the one Thursday morning, yet Woodward says they often see marijuana businesses not get the inspections they need.

“Certainly many of these marijuana businesses have not done that because one of the things we require when you renew your license, we want to see a copy of your certificate of occupancy, and close to 2000 businesses have not been able to produce that,” Woodward said.

Woodward says this has been an issue for years.

“Oftentimes they do it themselves or they’ve hooked it up to a neighbor’s property and they’re stealing it,” Woodward said. “There’s a number of different factors that clearly they never would have passed inspection had they had a prior inspection of the business.”

He says they have given marijuana businesses plenty of time to get everything up to code.

“We’ve given them time since last January, so over a year, almost a year and a half,” Woodward said. “They’ve been given notice that they need to meet fire code in order to get their license renewed.”

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Most businesses have complied, but Woodward says the ones that haven’t continue to put people in danger.

“We’ve got many businesses that are waiting to get inspected and and we’re going to work with them,” Woodward said. “Then we’ve had some that have made no effort whatsoever. They’re continuing to do endanger their employees, their customers and others.”

Woodward says arrest and charges are expected as the investigation moves forward.

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