Tulsa Drug Cultivation Lawyer for Oklahoma Marijuana Grow Charges

What Is Drug Cultivation in Oklahoma?

Oklahoma's cultivation law covers knowingly cultivating or producing certain plants from which a Schedule I or Schedule II controlled dangerous substance is derived. It also covers knowingly allowing those plants to be cultivated, produced, or grow wild on land you own or control.

Marijuana is the plant most likely to create a cultivation prosecution in Oklahoma. You do not have to be the person physically watering or tending the plants to face the charge. Knowingly allowing an unlawful grow on land you own or control is also covered.

The plants do not have to be growing outdoors or directly in the ground. Marijuana grown in greenhouses, pots, window boxes, and other containers falls within Oklahoma's cultivation law.

What Does the State Have to Prove?

For a cultivation conviction, prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that:

1. you acted knowingly;
2. you cultivated or produced the covered plants, or knowingly allowed them to be cultivated, produced, or grow wild;
3. the plants were a species from which a controlled dangerous substance is derived; and
4. the plants were on land you owned or controlled.

Those requirements make both knowledge and control of the property important. A deed or lease can help establish who owned or controlled a location, but it does not by itself prove that the person knew marijuana was being grown there. Living at a house also does not establish who planted, maintained, or controlled a grow area.

The opposite issue can arise when the accused person does not own the property. A tenant, occupant, or other person may still control the location where the plants were growing. The actual living arrangement, access to the property, use of the particular room or structure, keys, records, communications, and other evidence can become important.

Owning Property Is Not the Same as Knowingly Allowing a Grow

Cultivation cases sometimes involve property used by several people. A landowner may claim that a tenant or another person grew marijuana without the owner's knowledge. Several people may live in the same house while only one person uses a locked bedroom, detached garage, greenhouse, or outbuilding. Someone may be visiting when police execute a search warrant without having anything to do with the grow.

The State still has to prove the required connection between the accused person and the cultivation. Police and prosecutors may try to establish that connection through leases, deeds, utility accounts, keys, surveillance, security footage, text messages, photographs, purchases, statements, access to the grow area, or evidence showing who was actually tending the plants.

Rob examines those pieces of evidence individually rather than assuming that ownership, residence, or presence answers the entire question.

Medical Marijuana and Cultivation Charges

Oklahoma allows licensed medical-marijuana patients to grow up to six mature marijuana plants and six seedling plants at one time. A patient grow must be located on real property the patient owns or on property where the patient has the owner's written permission to grow marijuana. Oklahoma also restricts the visibility of a patient grow from an adjacent street.

Caregivers and licensed commercial growers have separate authorization and requirements. A medical marijuana license does not make every marijuana grow lawful. At the same time, the existence of a license should not be brushed aside when police claim cultivation was illegal.

Rob reviews the license that was in effect, the type of authorization involved, the location of the grow, written property permission when applicable, the number of plants, who controlled the grow area, and the conduct the State claims fell outside lawful marijuana activity. A regulatory issue and a felony cultivation charge are not interchangeable. The prosecution still has to prove the criminal offense it filed.

Plant Counts Can Be Important

The number of marijuana plants does not change the basic punishment range for a cultivation charge under § 2-509. Plant counts take on particular importance when the defense involves lawful medical-marijuana cultivation.

A patient is authorized to possess six mature plants and six seedlings. Whether police correctly classified and counted the plants can therefore affect the State's theory that a licensed patient was growing more marijuana than the law allowed.

The location of harvested marijuana can raise separate possession questions, but harvested marijuana is not simply another growing plant for purposes of counting six mature plants and six seedlings.

When plant count matters, Rob looks at the photographs, video, reports, and other available evidence showing what officers actually found and how they characterized it.

Punishment for Drug Cultivation in Oklahoma

Drug cultivation under § 2-509 is a Class B4 felony. For a first violation, the punishment range is:

• up to 10 (10) years in prison; and
• a fine of up to $50,000.

A second § 2-509 violation carries 2 (2) to 20 (20) years in prison and a fine of up to $100,000. A third or subsequent violation carries ten (10) years to life in prison.

Repeat offense punishment makes it especially important to determine exactly what prior conviction the State is relying upon rather than treating any prior drug case as though it automatically creates the enhancement.

Cultivation Is Different From Drug Manufacturing

Growing marijuana plants and manufacturing a controlled substance are different allegations. Cultivation focuses on growing or producing the plants, or knowingly permitting them to grow on land you own or control.

Oklahoma separately criminalizes manufacturing or attempting to manufacture hashish, hash oil, or hash powder by cooking, burning, extracting, or converting marijuana or marijuana oil. Other manufacturing allegations are also addressed under Oklahoma's drug laws.

A search of a grow operation may lead police to investigate both cultivation and manufacturing if they believe the evidence supports both theories. The State must still prove each charge separately.

Evidence Police Use in Cultivation Cases

Cultivation investigations frequently involve much more than the plants themselves. Police may rely on evidence such as:

• photographs or video of the grow;
• leases, deeds, and property records;
• utility records;
• keys and access to rooms, garages, sheds, greenhouses, or other areas;
• surveillance;
• text messages and other communications;
• purchases of lights, growing equipment, fertilizer, or other supplies;
• medical-marijuana licenses and related records;
• written permission to grow on another person's property;
• security-camera footage;
• statements made during the investigation; and
• evidence concerning who actually planted, tended, harvested, or controlled the marijuana.

None of those items should automatically be given more meaning than the evidence supports. A utility account shows who holds the account. It does not, standing alone, prove who was growing marijuana. A lease can show control of a residence without proving knowledge of everything another occupant was doing inside it. The evidence has to be considered in relation to what prosecutors actually need to prove.

Search Warrants and Cultivation Investigations

Many cultivation cases begin when police execute a search warrant at a house, acreage, commercial grow, warehouse, garage, or other property. Rob reviews what information officers used to obtain the warrant, what locations the warrant authorized them to search, what they found, and what occurred while the warrant was being executed.

A search warrant does not make every search automatically lawful. If the evidence supporting the warrant or the way police carried out the search violated constitutional protections, the defense may ask the court to suppress evidence obtained through that violation.

When important evidence is suppressed, the strength of the prosecution can change substantially. The effect depends on what evidence remains and what the State still has available to prove the cultivation charge.

Statements Can Become Important Evidence

Police investigating a grow may ask questions that sound simple:

Who owns the plants? Who waters them? Who pays the electric bill? Who has the medical-marijuana card? Who uses the garage? How many plants are there? Is the marijuana for personal use? Who else lives at the property?

Answers to those questions can become evidence concerning knowledge, control, ownership, intent, or other charges arising from the investigation. If law enforcement wants to question you about suspected cultivation or another drug offense, you should decline to answer questions and ask to speak with a lawyer.

Trying to explain another person's involvement, the purpose of a grow, or why particular evidence is present can create statements that later become part of the prosecution's case.

One Grow Investigation Can Produce Several Charges

Police who investigate marijuana cultivation may also investigate possession, possession with intent to distribute, trafficking, drug manufacturing, maintaining a place for drug activity, or other allegations supported by what they claim to have found.

Those charges do not merge into one generic drug case. Each has its own requirements. For example, evidence that someone was growing marijuana does not by itself establish an intent to distribute it. An alleged large-scale operation may lead police to look for communications, packaging, sales records, money, surveillance, or other evidence they believe shows distribution activity. Rob starts with the charges actually filed and then examines whether the evidence supports each one.

What to Do After a Cultivation Arrest or Search

If police have searched your home, land, or business, preserve the paperwork you received. Search-warrant documents, property records, leases, medical-marijuana licenses, written grow permission, photographs, videos, and communications may all become important.

Do not delete messages, alter records, destroy documents, or try to change the condition of potential evidence after an investigation has begun. If other people had access to the property or grow area, identify who they are and what parts of the property they used. Details about locks, rooms, outbuildings, gates, vehicles, utility accounts, and who actually maintained the plants can become significant later.

Most importantly, do not try to talk your way out of a cultivation investigation. You should decline to answer substantive questions and ask to speak with a lawyer.