AG McDaniel Approves Medical Marijuana Measure, Rejects Another

From Rob Moritz with our content partner, the Arkansas News Bureau:

The state attorney general on Tuesday certified a proposed initiated act that would legalize marijuana for medical use in Arkansas and rejected a second proposal.

The group Arkansans for Responsible Medicine now has until July 7, 2014, to collect 62,507 signatures of registered Arkansas voters in order to qualify its proposed initiative for the November 2014 ballot.

Under the proposal, a patient with a doctor’s certification that he or she suffers from a malady included on a list of conditions that might be helped by marijuana could purchase the drug from dispensaries. The proposal prohibits people from growing their own marijuana and requires it to be purchased from from dispensaries.

Meanwhile Tuesday, Attorney General Dustin McDaniel (D) cited a number of ambiguities in rejecting a proposed initiated act by Arkansans for Compassionate Care. It was the fourth time since November that the group has had its proposal rejected.

The group was successful in 2012 of getting its proposal on the ballot but it was rejected by voters.

The proposed initiated act would allow medical marijuana dispensaries in the state with the locations determined by the state Department of Health. The marijuana would only be available to people with prescriptions for certain health conditions, including chronic pain, glaucoma, Hepatitis C and those who are terminally ill.

Under the proposal, limited cultivation of marijuana would be granted to qualifying patients and designated caregivers if they lack access to reasonable transportation to a nonprofit dispensary and obtain a hardship cultivation certificate from the Department of Health.

A spokesperson for the rejected group said they will make another effort at qualifying. Read the full report here.