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Little Rock, AR: The state’s Attorney General has given the go-ahead to a ballot initiative effort to expand the state’s medical cannabis access law.
On Tuesday, Attorney General Tim Griffin approved the ballot title language for a proposed citizens’ initiative, the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment of 2024. He had previously rejected an earlier version of the amendment, opining that the language was ambiguous.
The proposed amendment improves existing law by expanding the pool of practitioners who may recommend medical cannabis and by increasing the total number of qualifying conditions for patients. It also allows patients to receive physician recommendations via telehealth appointments and extends patients’ registration in the program from one year to three years, among other modifications.
Separate provisions in the amendment authorize adults to legally possess up to one ounce of cannabis if the federal government deschedules it from the Controlled Substances Act.
Backers of the amendment, Arkansans for Patient Access, must collect over 90,704 signatures from registered voters by July 5, 2024 to qualify it for November’s ballot.
Arkansas voters passed a ballot measure in 2016 to establish the state’s medical marijuana program. However, patients were not able to begin accessing medical cannabis products until mid-2019. Currently, just under 100,000 residents are registered with the program.
