Opinion

OPINION | BRENDA BLAGG: State’s voters will clear the air on recreational marijuana’s future

Court: Voters will decide on recreational marijuana

The Arkansas Supreme Court's review of that pending lawsuit over a recreational marijuana amendment came to a quick conclusion last week.

Consequently, votes for or against what will be Issue 4 on the Nov. 8 general election ballot will definitely be counted.

And, if polling is correct, just four years after state voters approved Arkansas' medical marijuana amendment, voters will amend the Constitution again to allow manufacture, sale and adult use of recreational marijuana, too.

Responsible Growth Arkansas circulated the petitions for the amendment, gathering more than twice the number of signatures needed. The state Board of Election Commissioners subsequently declined to certify the ballot title. The Supreme Court settled the matter last week, validating the petition and clearing the way for the vote.

Since then, you've doubtlessly heard some of the advertising for advocates and opponents of the change. Both sides have ready campaign chests for the abbreviated time left before the Nov. 8 election.

As is often the case in issue campaigns, there are kernels of truth in such advertising, but a lot of detail is left out.

Take for example the suggestion in one of the ads for Issue 4 that adult-use marijuana sales will be a big source of new funding for law enforcement in Arkansas communities.

Those sales will indeed produce a lot of money. Some of it surely will go to an allowed state sales tax of up to 10% on cannabis sales for adult use.

But those taxes will have to be levied and, importantly, the proceeds will be shared if they are levied.

The ballot title of the amendment does say a "portion" of such tax proceeds is to be used for an annual stipend for certified law enforcement officers. That's true.

But a "portion" will also go to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and another "portion" to authorized drug court programs.

The remainder of the tax money will go into general revenue, but the Legislature will be required to appropriate cannabis licensing fees and sales tax proceeds to agencies regulating cannabis.

If you take the next step and search out the other 2,800-plus words in the enabling law, you'll see that the proposal contemplates levy of the full 10% supplemental sales tax and that the portion devoted to annual stipends for all qualifying law enforcement officers is 15% of the tax revenue.

The portion to UAMS would be 10% and the portion to drug court programs 5%. Those details and many others won't be on the printed ballot.

There is truth in another assertion from the pro-Issue 4 side. The amendment, if adopted, would spur related jobs and economic development.

Some proponents have suggested Arkansas might grow a billion-dollar industry with recreational marijuana, far more than has been generated by medical marijuana sales.

Just don't count on a lot of those dollars going into public coffers.

This amendment is heavily backed by those who have already hitched themselves to the existing medical marijuana industry in Arkansas. They stand to get automatic licenses to sell recreational marijuana and a competitive leg up on others who might want to get in the business.

It's mostly spelled out in the ballot proposal, although many voters will only look so far as to know the proposal will legalize adult use of marijuana.

Voters need to know much more before they make Issue 4 a permanent part of the state Constitution. And it will take some digging to find it.

•••

If you really want to know what this or any other proposed amendment would do, the best source is the actual proposal.

While the popular name of Issue 4 is brief, the actual ballot title, which would alter Amendment 98 of 2016, is itself 850 words, all of which could only be changed by a future vote of the people, not the Legislature.

One of the easiest places to find that document is through a longstanding public information source, the University of Arkansas extension service.

For many years now, the UA Division of Agriculture has provided a thorough, unbiased look at all pending ballot issues through its Public Policy Center.

Here's the website: www.uaex.uada.edu/ballot.

You can download a voter guide on all of the 2022 ballot issues from the site. Printed copies will be available next month in county extension offices.

Upcoming Events