Confusion continues over Arkansas ballot issues.
Although seven proposals are slated for the November ballot, legal challenges are pending against several of them.
How those cases resolve will affect whether the challenged proposals can ultimately be enacted.
Notably, the Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday knocked down one of the legal challenges. This one was against a proposed initiated act to legalize medical marijuana.
The court found that the ballot title for the initiated act is sufficient. The act is called the Arkansas Medical Cannabis Act and, if another legal challenge fails, will appear as Issue 7 on the ballot. It is sponsored by Arkansans for Compassionate Care.
The ballot title, according to the state’s high court, is “an impartial summary of the proposed measure that will give voters a fair understanding of the issues presented and of the scope and significant of the proposed changes in the law.”
Opponents of the measure had tried to block counting the votes, alleging the title was misleading.
While that argument failed, another lawsuit against that same proposal is still pending before the Supreme Court.
The second challenge is to the sufficiency of the signatures on the petition submitted to the secretary of state. Among that lawsuit’s backers is the sponsor of a competing marijuana initiative.
For the record, the coalition that brought the first legal challenge is a potent group. Arkansans Against Legalized Marijuana includes the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce, the Arkansas Farm Bureau Federation, the Coalition for Safer Arkansas Communities, the Family Council Action Committee and the Arkansas Committee for Ethics Policy.
Note, too, that the group doesn’t just oppose Issue 7. It is also against the other medical marijuana issue, the proposed Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment. It is Issue 6 on the ballot and, like the other proposal, faces legal challenge from Arkansans Against Legalized Marijuana. Arkansas Surgeon General Dr. Greg Bledsoe heads the group.
Recently, he and others from the medical profession joined Gov. Asa Hutchinson at the state Capitol to denounce both medical marijuana proposals.
“We all want those who are ill or suffering to have the right kind of medicine,” Hutchinson said. But he added that there is a reason the federal Food and Drug Administration must approve new medicines.
“We don’t vote on cancer cures, and we should not set a new pattern for determining what is good medicine at the ballot box,” he said.
There is opposition, too, to the prospect that approval of medical marijuana would lead to support for recreational use of the drug.
Foes want to defeat both medical marijuana proposals, either in court or on the ballot.
The difference between the competing measures most often cited is a grow-your-own provision in Issue 7. The initiated act would allow patients who don’t live near an approved dispensary to grow limited supplies of marijuana. There is no grow-your-own provision in the proposed Issue 6 constitutional amendment.
At least some of these competing interests acknowledge that presenting two related issues to voters has created a problem for passage of either proposal.
That does seem to be the situation, despite the fact that Arkansas voters in 2012 narrowly defeated a medical marijuana proposal.
Earlier polling in Arkansas has indicated continuing support for patients to be able to use medical marijuana when prescribed by a physician.
The environment for passage of one or both proposals still seems ripe in Arkansas, but they’ll encounter a lot of opposition in the coming weeks.
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Meanwhile, for those wanting to take a closer look at these or other ballot issues, here’s a recommendation:
Check out the 2016 Voter Guide on ballot issues that is prepared by the Public Policy Center at the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture at www.uaex.edu. Click on “state ballot issues” to find links to the full Voter Guide as well as audio presentations on the issues.
Also, on Oct. 5, from 6 to 7:30 p.m., the Washington County League of Women Voters will host a program at the Fayetteville Public Library on the ballot issues.
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Brenda Blagg is a freelance columnist and longtime journalist in Northwest Arkansas. Email her at [email protected] .