While one lawmaker worked to tweak parts of the voter-approved Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment on Thursday, another sought to delay it indefinitely.
Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Bigelow, filed Senate Bill 238, which would halt implementation of the state medical-marijuana program until 180 days after the federal government changes the law to allow it.
"It's illegal. I can't change that. No state legislator can change that," he said. "There is a willful ignorance about this that has got to stop."
The medicinal use of the drug continues to be illegal in the eyes of the federal law and remains in the most dangerous U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration classification.
President Barack Obama directed the federal government to leave marijuana decisions to the states, despite the federal law, but neither opponents nor proponents are sure where President Donald Trump stands on the matter.
Despite the federal-level uncertainty, Rep. Douglas House, R-North Little Rock, said lawmakers should not usurp the Arkansas voters' decision in the November election.
"If we were to ban marijuana now by hook or crook, we're arrogant and we ought to be run out of office," he said.
"I fully expect if anyone runs a bill to just postpone this whole thing, I fully expect the people of Arkansas to initiate another constitutional amendment to totally decriminalize marijuana -- growing it, possessing it, selling it, using it. That's what I expect to happen. A vote to deny the people what they've already asked for and voted for and demanded, I think is a vote for decriminalization."
House voted against the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment but was given the responsibility by legislative leadership of making the medical-marijuana program functional in Arkansas.
He said the Legislature was "negligent" in not addressing medical marijuana after a 2012 measure attracted 49 percent of the vote. Lawmakers discussed a cannabidiol measure and other medical marijuana measures in 2014, but "no one was really fired up about it."
Cannabidiol is a marijuana component that doesn't produce a high.
House filed bills Thursday that would change where medical-marijuana taxes go, allow the Medical Marijuana Commission to regulate advertising and promotion, and ensure that those associated with dispensaries and cultivation facilities undergo background checks.
Rapert filed his bill late Thursday.
Earlier in the day, Gov. Asa Hutchinson addressed another of Rapert's proposals -- banning the smoking of medical marijuana. No legislation has been filed on that matter.
The problems with smoke, Rapert said, is that no "medically accepted way to control dosage levels" exists and it contains higher levels of the psychoactive ingredients.
"THC does not have any true benefits unless, of course, you just want to numb your mind and be stoned," Rapert said.
Hutchinson said he is "hesitant about shifting gears" on allowing patients to smoke medical marijuana but wants to hear what the medical community has to say.
"When the voters supported medical marijuana, I would suspect that most of them had in mind the visual of smoking," the governor told reporters. "So that carries some weight."
Hutchinson has said the federal government needs to make a decision when it comes to medical marijuana.
"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 re-address this," he said at a news conference in late 2016. "This does not call for a state-by-state solution; it calls for ... a national solution."
During the same news conference, Hutchinson said the people have spoken and he would work to implement the law, unless the federal government says otherwise.
In at least one interview, Trump, a Republican, said he supported medical marijuana.
"I'm in favor of it 100 percent," Trump said on the O'Reilly Factor in February.
Any legislation modifying the voter-approved Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment requires a two-thirds vote in both the House and the Senate. The amendment allows the Legislature to modify the greater part of its text.
House said his bills are aimed at changes necessary for implementing the program.
House Bill 1369 would ensure that the state is reimbursed for enforcement and regulation before other entities receive money from the medical-marijuana program. Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, has said she does not want Arkansas' program to cost the state money.
"The program has to be self-sustaining," she said earlier this month. "I'm not interested -- whatsoever -- in putting forward extra general revenue from our state government that needs to go to streets and that needs to go to infrastructure and that needs to go to well-deserved programs for the needy."
The bill removes a requirement that half the program's revenue go toward a vocational and technical training fund. Instead, excess funds would go to the state's general revenue fund.
A Department of Finance and Administration estimate found that the program would cost millions more to support than marijuana taxes are likely to bring in. The bill calls for new estimates from several state agencies.
House Bill 1370 would allow the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Commission to regulate artwork, building signs, product display -- including shapes and flavors, indoor displays that can be seen from outside the dispensary or cultivation facility, and other forms of marketing.
David Couch, the Little Rock lawyer who sponsored the amendment, said the bill would allow the commission to regulate the design and flavor of so-called "edibles," but not ban them outright.
For example, the commission would be able to ban marijuana gummy bears so children would not be attracted to a marijuana product, Couch said.
House Bill 1371 would mandate that the Medical Marijuana Commission conduct a criminal background check on any individual who owns 10 percent or more of a dispensary or cultivation facility, in addition to an owner, board member, or officer of the dispensary or cultivation facility.
It also requires that the commission award licenses to human beings as opposed to corporate entities.
Several state agencies are developing rules to implement the use of the drug for medical purposes. The state Board of Health and the Medical Marijuana Commission both considered rules Thursday.
The commission decided to distribute dispensary licenses on the basis of eight multicounty zones instead of by the state's four congressional districts.
Commission member Travis Story, who advocated for such zones over the past several weeks, has said it would benefit rural parts of the state. Dispensaries in the larger congressional districts would gravitate toward more populated areas, he has said.
After the meeting, he addressed some of the proposed legislation in an interview.
"Do we want things like the candies, the gummy bears? Is that something that we want? As a father of little kids, they understand gummy bears to be Flintstone vitamins, not something with medical marijuana in it. We want to make sure -- at least I personally want to make sure -- we're treating those with the respect they deserve," he said of the ability to regulate edibles.
The commission's next meeting is at 4 p.m. Wednesday in the 1515 Building near the state Capitol.
Information for this article was contributed by Emma Pettit of Arkansas Online.
A Section on 01/27/2017