LITTLE ROCK — In November, Arkansas voters will be the first in the South to choose whether to legalize the medical use of marijuana.
Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have done so although possession of the drug is still a federal crime.
According to the Marijuana Policy Project of Washington, D.C., Arkansas is the first Southern state to have such a measure on the ballot. The project’s website says its mission is to increase public support and to change state laws to reduce or eliminate penalties for medical and nonmedical marijuana use.
Under Arkansas’ proposal, physicians would have to sign off that a person is ill with a qualifying condition before a person could use or possess marijuana for a medical reason. A qualified patient would be issued a Registry Identification Card by the state once a doctor certifies the drug is necessary by signing a “written certification” stating that the patient has a qualifying medical condition and is eligible.
A traditional prescription written by a doctor and filled at a pharmacy would not be required under the proposal.
On Wednesday, Secretary of State Mark Martin announced that Arkansans for Compassionate Care had turned in enough valid signatures of Arkansas voters to get the issue on the ballot. He is expected to certify the measure to the Nov. 6 ballot today.
Only 36,495 of the 65,413 signatures initially submitted by supporters of the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act belonged to registered voters. The group submitted an additional 74,406 signatures Aug. 13.
Secretary of state spokesman Alex Reed said the office stopped verifying signatures once it verified more than 69,000 as valid. The group needed 62,507 signatures.
“We’re confident that Arkansans will choose to support us in November and not allow a sick person to choose between suffering and breaking the law,” Arkansans for Compassionate Care Campaign Director Ryan Denham said.
Denham called the measure a chance for Arkansans to stand up for what is right.
“I think Arkansas is going to lead and be an example in other states,” Denham said.
According to the Marijuana Policy Project website, the 17 states that have legalized medical marijuana are Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.
Who may prescribe, sell or possess marijuana differs by state.
Voters in Massachusetts and North Dakota may also vote on whether to legalize medical marijuana in November, project spokesman Morgan Fox said.
Fox said public opinion is at a tipping point.
“People are sick and tired of using their tax money to arrest sick people for using a plant,” Fox said. “At the very least sick people should have the access.”
Fox said to his knowledge the only medical-marijuana measure to fail once it hasbeen on the ballot is in South Dakota.
Only two Southern states have removed the possibility of jail time for possessing small amounts of marijuana. Thirteen other states have passed similar laws, according to the site.
According to it’s June financial report, Arkansans for Compassionate Care received $111,000 of it’s $138,024 in donations from the Marijuana Policy Project.
There has been little organized opposition to the proposal. But the Coalition to Preserve Arkansas Values filed as a Ballot Question Committee in opposition with the state Ethics Commission in May, but the group hasn’t filed a financial report since. No other group has filed.
Coalition director Jerry Cox said the group plans to review the submitted signatures and has already spoken with an attorney about whether the measure is false or misleading. He said the coalition would consider challenging the measure to the state Supreme Court to keep it off the ballot.
Cox said he is “pretty concerned” voters will approve it.
“That they have framed it as an compassion issue makes it more difficult to defeat,” Cox said. “I don’t buy it. This is simply a back door effort to legalize marijuana throughout the state of Arkansas.”
Denham said using marijuana medically does help people.
“That’s not a frame, that’s reality,” Denham said. “We’ve been overwhelmed by patients who have come to us.”
Denham said the measure is similar to existing laws in Maine and Arizona and he thinks it will hold up under a lawsuit.
The proposed Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act would legalize marijuana for treatment of certain medical problems, though it remains illegal to use, produce or distribute the drug for any reason under federal law.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that the federal government can enforce federal drug laws even in states that purportedly allow marijuana use for medical reasons.
However, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has directed the Justice Department to shift from prosecuting “medical marijuana” cases. Instead, prosecutors focus on cases involving other drugs and to matters that Holder considers more serious, including drug trafficking and money laundering.
The measure would establish a system for cultivating and distributing marijuana for qualifying patients through nonprofit dispensaries.
Registered and qualified patients would be allowed to have up to 2 1/2 ounces of usable marijuana without being prosecuted by the state.
Patients who live more than five miles from a dispensary would be allowed to grow their own supply. Some caregivers also would be immune from state prosecution for growing marijuana.
Cox said that concerns him.
For instance, he said, if the nearest dispensary is in downtown Little Rock “people in Chenal [miles from downtown] could grow marijuana in their backyard legally.”
Qualifying conditions are cancer, glaucoma, human immunodeficiency virus/ acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), hepatitis-C, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Tourette’s syndrome, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, post-traumatic stress disorder, fibromyalgia or Alzheimer’s disease.
Marijuana also would be available for people who have a chronic or debilitating disease or medical condition or its treatment that produces one or more of the following: cachexia or wasting syndrome;peripheral neuropathy; intractable pain, which is pain that has not responded to ordinary medications, treatment or surgical measures for more than six months; severe nausea; seizures, including those characteristic of epilepsy; or severe and persistent muscle spasms, including those characteristic of multiple sclerosis.
The state Health Department would have the authority to approve other conditions or treatments.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 08/23/2012