Brenda Blagg: Arkansas goes to pot

State’s voters set leaders on uncharted course

Arkansas voters did indeed plant medical marijuana in the state's Constitution.

The decision wasn't a surprise. There had been every indication of support for medical use of the drug in Arkansas, which for a time had not one but two such proposals up for consideration.

The Arkansas Supreme Court pulled the plug on the second proposal, an initiated act that also would have permitted medical marijuana use and sale in Arkansas, when the court found petitions submitted for the act insufficient.

So Arkansans readily passed the remaining proposal, a constitutional amendment, with just more than 53 percent of the vote.

Again, the outcome was not surprising. Recent polling had suggested even stronger support for legalization (68 percent in the latest Arkansas Poll).

What was surprising was that Arkansas' passage of the Medical Marijuana Amendment of 2016 stirred a little national attention.

It turns out ours is one of the first Bible Belt states to approve any kind of marijuana use, a signal to some that maybe national attitudes have shifted enough to trigger a change in the federal law.

It is change for which even Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has acknowledged some need.

"It's an example of the states innovating in a risky area, and certainly the states are leading on this, but we're to a point that the federal government is going to have to readdress this," Hutchinson said after the Arkansas vote.

Hutchinson strongly opposed the ballot measure but has taken steps to begin its implementation, allocating $3 million in state "rainy day" funds to start the process.

"I don't like the idea of implementing laws in Arkansas that violate federal law. That is a given. That's where we are. And that's not a good position to be in," said the governor, who is a former head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Despite its legalization now in more than half the states (for medical or recreational use or both), marijuana remains a controlled substance under federal law -- listed alongside heroin and LSD in the Controlled Substances Act.

As Hutchinson explained, the federal government has in recent years elected not to enforce the Controlled Substances Act in reference to medical marijuana or the banking laws against institutions that do business with marijuana companies.

President-elect Donald Trump's administration may or may not follow the practice in the future.

Arkansas was one of four states to authorize medical marijuana in this year's election. The others were Montana, North Dakota and Florida. These four states join 17 more that already allow some type of medical marijuana use.

Eight other states and the District of Columbia have approved recreational as well as medical use of marijuana. New this year among states permitting recreational use of the drug are California, Nevada and Massachusetts.

So far, there's been no serious effort to legalize recreational use in Arkansas. The only other vote here on legalization was a 2012 try for medical marijuana that failed by 30,000 votes.

The margin by which the Medical Marijuana Amendment passed this year was about 70,000 votes statewide, with two counties (Pulaski and Washington) contributing almost half that difference. The amendment passed in 38 counties, including almost all of the more urban ones. It failed in 37 counties.

However it happened, it happened.

And, regardless of how or if the federal government addresses the issue, Arkansas is about to get into the medical marijuana business.

The new amendment gives the state up to 120 days to write rules and regulations for the new industry. The state is supposed to be ready to accept applications for dispensaries in mid-2017.

The amendment also allows the Legislature to change prescribed deadlines and some lawmakers are already talking about extending the startup time.

There's much to be done.

The governor, the Senate president pro tempore and the House speaker will need to appoint five people to a newly created Medical Marijuana Commission, which will administer and regulate the licensing of dispensaries and cultivation facilities.

Meanwhile, the Department of Health and the Alcoholic Beverage Control Division of the Department of Finance and Administration each must gear up for their respective new responsibilities, too.

"The people voted this in and I intend to implement it according to the will of the people of Arkansas," Hutchinson said late last week. "But the people of Arkansas expect me to do it right, to do it in a way that protects our children and to do it in a way that minimizes the problems we've been very concerned about. That's what the regulations are about."

There is also talk from within the Legislature, not from the governor, of other changes to the brand new amendment.

Lawmakers would have to muster a two-thirds majority to make allowable changes, and some promise to be controversial.

Already lawmakers are thinking about redirecting where sales tax revenue from marijuana sales would go and even adding another tax on the drug.

And that's just the start. It's going to be a rough ride and quite a while before the first patient ever benefits from Arkansas' legalization of this drug.

Commentary on 11/23/2016

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