Changes in law needed to make marijuana available and affordable
Education Group and Arkansans for Cannabis Reform Executive Director Melissa Fults said.
“Disappointed doesn’t even begin to cover it, which is why we are working on a ballot initiative for adult recreational use of marijuana to fix the medical program,” Fults said. “They just did a horrible job with medical marijuana in Arkansas. Number one, it is set up to be a monopoly. Number two, there is no help for people on fixed incomes or low incomes. No home growing is allowed. It is very limited, so the supply is much, much, much less than the demand, which is going to keep prices high. Many patients are left out in the cold now because the program was limited about who got covered. A lot of patients don’t qualify under this program.”
Fults spearheaded an alternative ballot initiative in Arkansas in 2016 that got thrown out by legal action filed by David Couch, author of the competing medical marijuana initiative that did pass and was adopted by the state. Fults said she blames the failure of the medical marijuana program in Arkansas on Couch, the Arkansas Legislature, and the state’s Medical Marijuana Commission.
“The MMC has done very shoddy work,” Fults said. “They did a horrible job of issuing licenses, how they chose the grow facilities and dispensaries. A nightmare. It is the biggest corrupt joke I have seen in a long time. I don’t think any other state has been as big a nightmare other than New Jersey. If it weren’t so pathetic, it would be funny.”
David Boyer, legislative analyst of the Marijuana Policy Project, agreed it has taken Arkansas longer than other states to set up a functional medical marijuana program. Oklahoma passed medical marijuana legalization in June 2018 and sales started the following October.
Boyer said the MMC did not do an adequate job scoring applications, which plagued the rollout of the program with lawsuits. And it was a mistake to license so few dispensaries and grow facilities.
“Medical marijuana laws serve the patient best when they allow for competition in the marketplace,” Boyer said. “This provides the patient with the best quality medicine at an affordable price.”
Boyer said Arkansas has some of the harshest marijuana laws in the country and the Arkansas Legislature has shown little interest in changing its cannabis laws.
“Marijuana prohibition is alive and well in Arkansas and you can still be sent to jail for possessing small amounts of marijuana,” he said.
He said people who care about this issue should get involved with politics by writing your state representative and state senator and asking that they introduce a marijuana decriminalization bill next session. Donate to politically active groups like the Marijuana Policy Project and NORML.
Fults is heading efforts to gather petition signatures to put two marijuana use initiatives on the ballot in 2020. The first amendment would allow for adult recreational use of cannabis. The second amendment would expunge felony and misdemeanor marijuana convictions for possession of under 16 ounces, for six or fewer plants, or cannabis paraphernalia.
However, the voter initiative effort is hindered by legislation passed in Arkansas designed to make it more difficult to put a ballot initiative before the voters.
Fults doesn’t necessarily blame the people who got dispensary licenses for it taking so long to get open. Part of the problem, for some, is that they initially had funders. But when it took 2.5 years to get the program going, some investors lost interest so dispensaries lost funding.
“Most dispensaries care and want to do well by patients,” Fults said. “But they are the mercy of the cultivation centers, which is causing the prices to stay high. Hopefully, when dispensaries start growing, prices will come down. But I don’t see any great change in prices until we get adult use legalized.”
Fults said their proposed ballot initiative would allow 30 dispensaries per congressional district. Each county would be allowed at least one dispensary unless voters decide against it.
“Currently there are only forty dispensaries allowed in a state with 75 counties,” Fults said. “That is ridiculous. The ballot initiatives we are proposing would open the field up. Prices will be much less and people won’t have to be rich to open dispensaries. Most important, it will be much more accessible and affordable.”
Fults said the ballot initiatives are designed to solve problems with the medical marijuana program by adding more dispensaries to increase competition and bring down prices, and not restricting use only to people with a narrow list of qualifying conditions. Under the new voter initiative people can grow up to six plants at home.
“I don’t see it hurting dispensaries,” Fults said. “People need to have that right to grow, if they so choose. They can make their own beer and wine. Why can’t they grow their own cannabis?”
The plan is to kick off the signature drive August 1. Volunteers must attend training classes to receive petitions.
“It is critical that the signatures are done properly,” Fults said. “Because of the changes in the petitioning laws, it will not only be the most-costly campaign we have ever done, but the rules are much stricter and volunteers must abide by the same rules as paid canvassers. If we get the funding later, we will have paid canvasser positions available.”
The first training session for the volunteer effort to get signatures from registered voters for the two new ballot initiatives was held July 30 in Little Rock. More are planned throughout the state.
The tax money collected for recreational marijuana after paying for the program would be split with 60 percent going to fund early childhood education and after school care, and 40 percent donated to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
Fults said recreational marijuana would provide thousands of good-paying jobs and boost the economy as it has done in other states with legal recreational marijuana.
“There is a green rush – not a gold rush – and Arkansas is blowing it,” Fults said.
To make a donation online, go to drugpolicyeducation.org/donate/, or mail a check to P.O. BOX 420, Hensley, AR 72065.