Robert E. Brooks filed an Oklahoma Open Records Act request with Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s office seeking records behind the state’s claims that more than 7,000 illegal marijuana operations have been shut down. Brooks said he wants to determine exactly what is included in that number and which agencies performed the enforcement work.
Drummond’s office created the Organized Crime Task Force in 2023 to target illegal marijuana operations and related organized crime. Drummond has repeatedly said the task force has shut down more than 7,000 illegal operations.
Brooks is asking for records showing whether those cases involved criminal raids, administrative closures, license surrenders, failures to renew licenses or actions by other agencies.
“I’m not asking the people of Oklahoma to take my word for anything, and I don’t think they should have to take Gentner Drummond’s word for it either,” Brooks said. “Show us the records.”
The request seeks spreadsheets, databases, reports and other documents used to calculate the enforcement totals, along with records concerning arrests, warrants, seizures, forfeitures and prosecutions. Brooks also wants information showing the involvement of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics, Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority, county sheriffs, local police and federal agencies.
The request comes as Oklahoma’s number of licensed marijuana grows has dropped sharply. Drummond’s office said in April that the state had fallen from more than 9,000 licensed grows when he took office to fewer than 1,200. Brooks said those numbers also need documentation explaining how the figures were calculated. “If thousands of licenses disappeared because businesses voluntarily surrendered licenses, failed to renew or were closed administratively, those are very different things from being raided by law enforcement,” Brooks said.
Brooks is also questioning whether the Attorney General’s task force duplicates work already performed by existing law-enforcement agencies.
“We already have the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics. We have 77 county sheriffs. We have police departments, district attorneys and state and federal law-enforcement partners,” he said. “Why did the Attorney General need to build his own enforcement operation?”
Drummond’s office has pointed to major multi-agency investigations as evidence of the task force’s effectiveness. In one April operation involving Tulsa and Claremore, the Attorney General’s Office said task force agents worked with numerous state, local and federal agencies and seized more than 58,920 marijuana plants and 1,350 lbs. of rocessed marijuana.
Brooks said those examples demonstrate why the underlying records are important when determining who performed the work and how credit was assigned. He is also questioning the cost of the task force and whether its highly publicized enforcement campaign provided a political benefit to Drummond.
Brooks stressed that he is raising the issue as a question, not making an accusation.
“I’m suspicious of these claims, but suspicion isn’t proof,” Brooks said. “The records are the proof.”
Along with the records request, Brooks said he served a preservation demand covering government communications and electronic records related to the requested information. He said the demand does not seek private family communications, but only records concerning public duties.
Brooks said the effort is intended as an audit rather than a predetermined judgment.
“If I’m wrong about these numbers, I want the records to prove me wrong. If Gentner is right, I’ll say he’s right,” Brooks said. “That’s what an audit is supposed to do.”
The questions Brooks wants answered include how many marijuana operations were actually raided, how many were closed administratively, how many licenses simply disappeared from state records, which agencies performed the work, how much the task force has cost taxpayers and what measurable results Oklahoma received. Brooks said he plans to let the records provide the answers.