"Voters in the staunchly conservative state had just four months earlier authorized a medical marijuana program and sales were just beginning. The Bakers immediately saw the potential for the fledgling market.
With no limits on marijuana business licenses, scant restrictions on who can obtain a medical card, and cheap land, energy and building materials, they believed Oklahoma could become a free-market weed utopia and they wanted in.
"This is exactly like Humboldt County was in the late 90s," Baker says, as a trio of workers chop down marijuana plants that survived a recent ice storm. "The effect this is going to have on the cannabis nation is going to be incredible."
"Turns out rednecks love to smoke weed," Baker laughs. "That's the thing about cannabis: It really bridges socio-economic gaps. The only other thing that does it is handguns. All types of people are into firearms. All types of people are into cannabis."
Indeed, Oklahoma has established arguably the only free-market marijuana industry in the country. Unlike almost every other state, there are no limits on how many business licenses can be issued and cities can't ban marijuana businesses from operating within their borders.
In addition, the cost of entry is far lower than in most states: a license costs just $2,500. In other words, anyone with a credit card and a dream can take a crack at becoming a marijuana millionaire.
"They've literally done what no other state has done: free-enterprise system, open market, wild wild west," says Tom Spanier, who opened Tegridy Market (a dispensary that takes its name from South Park) with his wife in Oklahoma City last year. "It's survival of the fittest."
