Oklahoma’s illicit marijuana market may now be worth hundreds of billions of dollars, according to new statistics presented Friday by the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and the Texoma High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. 

Between March 2024 and March 2025, state tracking systems failed to account for roughly 70 million pounds of marijuana — nearly 30 times the amount needed to supply Oklahoma’s roughly 300,000 licensed medical marijuana patients, said Donnie Anderson, the director of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics. From 2022 to 2023, that figure was 22 million pounds — meaning the amount of lost marijuana has roughly tripled over the past two years. 

The numbers show how, despite years of enforcement, Oklahoma’s illicit market has continued to thrive. A senior state official told The Frontier the increase likely stems from more growers complying with reporting requirements amid tighter enforcement, rather than a surge in production.

The new data comes from a report from the Texoma High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area commissioned by U.S. Sen. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma. It ties the overproduction to illegal farms run by Chinese criminal groups and cites reporting by The Frontier and ProPublica.

At a press conference Friday unveiling the report, officials called for legislative action.

“We can’t arrest our way out of this,” said Donnie Anderson, the director of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics. “If we did raids every day for the next five years—and we are doing them about every day — we won’t end this. We’ve got to address this legislatively. We’ve got to clean this up.”

Anderson urged the legislature to commission a formal study to determine how much marijuana is needed for the state’s medical market and to develop production limits for grows based on the findings. Unlike most other states in the country, Oklahoma does not limit the amount of marijuana its farms can produce. 

That position stands in contrast to what other state leaders have said. Senate President Pro Tempore Lonnie Paxton told The Frontier in February that he believes law enforcement agencies already have the tools they need to deal with the issue, and that major new legislation is unnecessary.

Lankford said during the press conference that he has been in talks with senior federal law enforcement officials under the new Trump Administration about what’s happening in Oklahoma’s marijuana industry. 

“If we go back several years ago, the FBI and DEA basically told us, ‘Hey, you made your bed, lie in it,’” Lankford said. “We’re now seeing the results of people backing off on the law enforcement side as our state rushed into this issue. But now the DEA and FBI are very engaged in what’s going on.”

Oklahoma law requires all marijuana plants to be tagged. Officials say criminal operations often tag plants to appear legal, then remove the tags before diverting the product — meaning it doesn’t get tested or sold through dispensaries. Authorities estimate how much product was diverted to the black market using this data and assumptions about what percentage of the marijuana becomes sellable versus waste.

While black market prices fluctuate, they generally range from about $1,800 to $3,500 per pound, according to experts, meaning the diverted supply could be worth between roughly $126 billion and $245 billion. By comparison, Oklahoma’s oil industry generated roughly $55.6 billion in 2023, according to the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board.

The report also highlighted widespread human trafficking, environmental problems, and national security risks associated with the illegal industry. As The Frontier and ProPublica reported, thousands of immigrant workers have been abused and exploited at marijuana farms in Oklahoma. And some marijuana entrepreneurs in the state have ties to the Chinese government and illegal influence operations it has carried out in the U.S.

“We are funding transnational organizations who are funding governments that do not like the United States,” Anderson said. “That’s where the profits from those 70 million pounds of marijuana are going.”

Clarification: The story was updated on March 29 to include new estimates on the value of black-market marijuana and additional context from a state official.