Oklahoma to weed 8,000 pot applications
TULSA -- The Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority has received nearly 7,330 license applications for patients and 600 applications for dispensaries, signaling the potential start of a competitive marketplace with light regulations.
Oklahoma's ratio of medical marijuana patients to dispensaries would be about 12 to 1 if each business had its application approved and managed to open, according to the state statistics released Monday.
Industry leaders disagree about whether the business landscape would be sustainable in the long run, the Tulsa World reported.
Oklahoma voters approved a state question in June to allow cannabis to be used as medicine and Bud Scott, the director of trade group New Health Solutions Oklahoma, said the market is still underdeveloped.
"We need to be careful about how our market evolves," Scott said. "But this is what the people voted for and our Legislature decided not to take any real actions to implement control we've seen in other markets, so now here we are. It's kind of survival of the fittest to see who makes it and who doesn't."
Medical trade groups, such as the Oklahoma State Medical Association and the Oklahoma Hospital Association, lobbied for a cap of 50 dispensaries statewide until patient license numbers match demand. But the state Board of Health decided not to include a dispensary limit in emergency rules approved in August, determining that the board didn't have authority to create such a restriction.
4 men missing from flooded Texas park
DALLAS -- Emergency crews searched for four men Monday whose recreational vehicle was among those swept away by floodwaters in an RV park in a small West Texas city, prompting dramatic rescues by helicopters and boats.
Heavy rains fell Sunday night and into Monday morning in Junction, about 140 miles west of Austin. Kimble County Sheriff Hilario Cantu said no fatalities have been confirmed but that "all the RVs, everything, got swept away."
Texas Game Warden Rachel Kellner said the four missing men worked together and were swept away before daybreak by the South Llano River.
Authorities said 19 people were rescued -- 15 by boat and four by helicopter -- and 40 people were evacuated from the South Llano RV Park. Kellner said two of the people rescued by air were in a tree with a family dog.
She said all those rescued have been checked out by medical emergency personnel, but it's unclear if any required hospitalization.
National Weather Service meteorologist Aaron Woodward said the main flooding was along the South Llano River, next to the RV park. Woodward said radar estimates show that up to 12 inches of rain had fallen in the area.
Conquistador link sought to wild horses
NEW ORLEANS -- A group formed to protect wild horses at an Army post in Louisiana said Monday that preliminary genetic testing indicates they could be descendants of horses brought by Spanish explorers and colonists.
A Texas A&M University professor emeritus said genes from 17 horses recently captured at Fort Polk appear close to colonial Spanish breeds from South America and Puerto Rico.
Geneticist Gus Cothran said he hopes to have a full analysis done by the end of October, but the horses appear closest to the Venezuelan Criollo and the Puerto Rican Paso.
Pegasus Equine Guardian Association said in a news release Monday that this shows the horses should be protected rather than removed from Fort Polk.
Officials at the base call them "trespass horses" and have said they pose a safety risk in training areas.
LA traffic stops probed for racial profiling
LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles County inspector general is investigating whether sheriff's deputies racially profiled drivers when they stopped thousands of innocent Hispanics in search of drugs on a major freeway.
The investigation began Monday after the Los Angeles Times reported that 69 percent of the 9,000 drivers who were stopped between 2012 and 2017 as part of an enforcement operation on Interstate 5 were Hispanic. And, two-thirds of the Hispanics stopped by the Los Angeles County sheriff's Domestic Highway Enforcement Team had their cars searched, a rate far higher than other racial groups, the newspaper reported.
County Supervisor Hilda Solis said the report "warrants a deeper investigation" and asked the inspector general and a civilian oversight commission to review the enforcement team, made up of four white male deputies.
Officials with the sheriff's office have denied racial profiling and say they stop people based on their driving and other impartial factors.
Sheriff Jim McDonnell said he's proud of the team's work, which includes seizing 3,500 pounds of drugs and rescuing six victims of human trafficking.
"As someone who has dedicated my career to protecting the civil rights of all people, I am personally concerned about any allegation of racial and ethnic profiling and take very seriously questions about race and police procedures," he said.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports
A Section on 10/09/2018