Arkansas' adventure with medical marijuana is beginning, complete with roadblocks expected to be set up in Little Rock and maybe in Washington, too.
State voters approved a constitutional amendment in November to allow the sale and use in Arkansas of marijuana for medicinal purposes.
It was a lengthy amendment, chock-full of details, but it also carried an unusual element, allowing almost anything in it to be altered by a vote of the Legislature.
Generally, constitutional amendments get passed to lock in their provisions, requiring nothing short of another constitutional amendment to change them.
But this one, on the ballot as Issue 6, came with the proviso that the Legislature, by a two-thirds vote of both houses, may change most but not all of it.
Be assured, some lawmakers will try to make changes when they assemble in Little Rock beginning next week for a regular session.
What the amendment won't allow lawmakers to change are sections actually legalizing the medical use of marijuana and setting the number of allowable dispensaries and cultivation facilities.
The new amendment provided for at least 20 but not more than 40 dispensary licenses to be issued in Arkansas and for at least four but not more than eight cultivation facility licenses.
That is what the amendment is -- constitutional protection for the for-profit enterprises that eventually get those limited licenses.
A newly created state Medical Marijuana Commission is busily deciding some of the details left to that body, at least until and unless the Legislature changes their charge.
The commissioners were appointed after the election with Gov. Asa Hutchinson and legislative leaders making the selections. The commissioners are Dr. Ronda Henry-Tillman of Little Rock, the chairman; James Miller of Bryant; Travis Story of Fayetteville; Carlos Roman of Little Rock; and Dr. Stephen Carroll of Benton.
They've already made some significant decisions.
Initially, the commission will allow as many as five cultivation facilities in the state. They discussed spreading the sites out among the five state-identified public health regions in the state, which would effectively put one in each corner of the state and another in Central Arkansas.
The commission is supposed to begin accepting applications for both cultivators and dispensaries in June, but that date can be pushed back by the Legislature.
The Medical Marijuana Commission has also decided prospective cultivators of the drug will have to compete for state licenses on a merit-based system, rather than a lottery.
They haven't decided just what that system will be. People who want those licenses will have to pay a $15,000 application fee and an as-yet-undetermined annual licensing fee.
The commission set the fee at the maximum allowed under Issue 6, agreeing that those who don't get licenses will get half their money back.
There is much on the commission's plate yet.
Among the challenges is the fact that state oversight of medical marijuana is expected to cost between $4 million and $6 million a year. Related tax revenue, according to the state Department of Finance and Administration, totals maybe $2.5 million. Fees or perhaps additional taxes might make up the gap.
The potential for additional taxes is among the issues lawmakers may address. There is definitely some sentiment in the Legislature for imposing more taxes as well as to restrict and/or expand access to the drug.
Some bills have already been pre-filed to address different aspects of medical marijuana regulation. More surely will be when lawmakers get into full swing in Little Rock.
Meanwhile, an over-arching question lingers about what a new administration in Washington will mean for state marijuana laws in Arkansas and elsewhere.
At least some suggest President-elect Donald Trump's choice of U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions as his nominee for attorney general portends trouble for pot laws nationwide.
POLITICO Magazine recently predicted Sessions, a former U.S. attorney in Alabama, would wage war on marijuana. Sessions has called marijuana reform a "tragic mistake" and has criticized recent attorneys general for not vigorously enforcing federal prohibition of the drug, according to the magazine.
If he gets his turn, no one is sure just what the new attorney general's agenda -- and his enforcement policy -- will be.
Marijuana is still a controlled substance under federal law, listed right alongside heroin and LSD in the Controlled Substances Act.
Just because other attorneys general haven't enforced the law in states that have made marijuana legal for medical use or otherwise doesn't mean Sessions won't.
Of course, he isn't attorney general yet. Nor do we know what priority, if any, his future boss might put on this issue.
Never mind that more states have legalized either recreational or medical marijuana than have not.
The possibility of a national policy shift still hangs out there, right along with the prospect of heavy meddling by Arkansas lawmakers in this state's brand new amendment.
Commentary on 01/04/2017