Implementation steps outlined for Arkansas’ medical marijuana measure

Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s to-do list added a big item: Implement laws and regulations legalizing medical marijuana, and do it quickly.

Arkansas voters Tuesday passed the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment, 53-47%. With all 75 counties reporting, the vote was 582,076 for the amendment and 514,363 against.

Hutchinson, the former federal Drug Enforcement Administration director, said Wednesday during a press conference that the result was “not the yes vote I wanted.” Still he began taking action to implement the program by announcing he was asking the appropriate legislative committees for $3 million in rainy day funds for the Department of Finance and Administration and the Department of Health. The Health Department will receive $2,475,000, while DFA will receive $525,000.

“The people voted this in, and I intend to implement it according to the will of the people of Arkansas, but the people of Arkansas also expect me to do it right, to do it in a way that protects our children, to do it in a way that minimizes the problems that we’ve been very concerned about,” he said.

An analysis by DFA before the election found the Department of Health would spend between $2.1 million and $3.1 million annually, while DFA would spend between $1.9 million and $2.7 million. An analysis of six states that have legalized medical marijuana but not recreational marijuana found Arkansas could expect sales of $38.3 million annually at 18-24 months, resulting in $2.5 million in sales tax revenues.

With passage, the amendment went into effect Wednesday. Hutchinson, House Speaker Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia, and Senate President Pro Tempore Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, have 30 days to appoint a five-member Medical Marijuana Commission that must create a process for licensing dispensaries and cultivation facilities. The commission has 120 days to establish license application and license renewal fees for dispensaries and cultivation facilities. It must begin accepting applications by June 1. Meanwhile, the Alcoholic Beverage Control Division has 120 days to be ready to inspect dispensaries, while the Department of Health has 120 days to set up a system to provide cards to eligible patients and to set up labeling and testing standards.

Hutchinson said that’s a lot to accomplish considering regulations must be approved by legislators.

“It’s going to take us some time to develop some very complex regulations on a critically important topic, and to have them go through legislative review, it will be nigh unto impossible, very difficult to meet the deadlines that’s in the amendment,” he said.

Couch said Wednesday that finding potential dispensary operators and cultivators will not be a problem. He said that day he had 100 phone calls from people wanting to apply for licenses. It reached the point where he told his secretary to tell callers to email him. Couch said once the licenses are granted, the plants will have to be grown because they cannot be imported from out of state, though seeds can be imported. Plants are grown indoors in sophisticated operations.

Hutchinson said the processes will be completed during a time of federal uncertainty. Marijuana is now legal in Arkansas but still illegal in the United States. Banks in other states have been reluctant to open accounts from marijuana-based businesses for fear of violating federal laws. The process has worked because the Obama administration has granted a waiver to states, but President Obama leaves office in January. President-elect Donald Trump has said he favors medical marijuana.

Hutchinson called on the federal government to make changes, listing as possibilities guidance from the Trump administration on enforcement; legislation to amend federal regulations; or an expedited review of marijuana by the Food and Drug Administration.

“We’re to the point that it calls for a national solution, and that means Congress is going to have to address it as well,” he said. “I don’t like the idea of implementing laws in Arkansas that violate federal law.”

Arkansas joined North Dakota, another red state, along with Florida in approving medical marijuana, while Montana voters reduced restrictions on an existing law. Voters in California, Massachusetts and Nevada approved recreational marijuana measures, while a Maine recreational legalization measure was leading in the vote count Wednesday.

Couch said Arkansas’ passage of medical marijuana had created national and international interest because it’s the first Southern red state in the Bible belt to legalize medical marijuana. He said Congress will have to do something to get the money made off marijuana into the banking system.

“Let’s say the sales in Arkansas, let’s be conservative and say 50 million bucks a year in Arkansas,” he said. “You don’t want people carrying that around in sacks. I mean, you want that money in the banking system.”

The amendment went into effect the same day Hutchinson presented to lawmakers his budget that will be considered in the upcoming legislative session. He said other governors have told him that implementing medical marijuana is time consuming, but he said he did not expect it to upstage the session.