Earlier this week we learned that the head council for the Department of Health, Julie Ezell was resigning her position presumably because the Department did not take her advice when writing up the rules for medical marijuana.
Minutes later we learned she was resigning not because she had been allegedly sending herself e-mail death threats, saying simply, "I'm Sorry" in her resignation.
At the time I wondered why? If you were resigning because the Department didn't follow your legal advice, and you thought the rules were illegal or unconstitutional; OK. You don't have to make up threats to justify your leaving.
In a story released yesterday it seems Julie Ezell was talking via text message to Chelsea Church of the Oklahoma State Board of Pharmacy. In the course of those conversations it was implied if Ezell saw to it a certain rule was included a job for her at the State Board of Pharmacy could be arranged. Allegedly the rule requiring a pharmacist in every medical marijuana dispensary was added as part of that arrangement. The conversation took place just before the Department of Health was to submit their rules for medical marijuana to the governor.
It is starting to look like Julie Ezell wrote the threatening e-mails to herself to either leverage her position further, or cover her tracks as a reason for leaving the Department of Health. The whole thing is starting to look a lot like the Randy Terrell case of quid-pro-quo. (For those of us from Maud that's that fancy Latin talk for "scratch my back I'll scratch yours").
I should have known better than to wonder why. Whenever it seems like there is something as smelly as burning marijuana going on; something smelly is!