OPINION: Gubernatorial candidate Chris Powell calls for Terri White's resignation

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After learning that Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services Commissioner Terri White may have been the individual who wrote the proposals to ban smokable cannabis from dispensaries and to require dispensaries to employ pharmacists, Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Chris Powell said a resignation is in order. 

"If media reports are correct and Commissioner White did instigate these obstructionist measures designed to thwart the will of the people as expressed in the landslide vote in favor of SQ 788 then she ought to resign. No one with such contempt for the voters should be heading a state agency."  

SQ 788 was approved on June 26th with nearly 57% of the vote in an election with exceptionally high turnout, causing Governor Fallin to change her mind about calling a special session and putting responsibility for making rules regarding medical cannabis in the hands of the Board of Health, who added each of the last-minute amendments against the advice of the Health Department's general counsel, Julie Ezell. These were similar to several obstructionist proposals offered by the Oklahoma State Medical Association on Monday.  Lana Ivey, executive director of the Oklahoma Osteopathic Association, was quoted as saying "Terri (White) pretty much generated the recommendations..."

Powell, who finished first in the Libertarian gubernatorial primary with 49% of the vote but still faces a runoff, believes that voters are fed up with state government officials that forget they work for the people. "The political establishment routinely makes it clear that they don't care what voters think," said Powell. "If Commissioner White was behind these measures to gut SQ 788 then she is part of the problem along with Gov. Fallin who eagerly signed the rules in yet another display of blatant disregard for the wants and needs of the people of Oklahoma."