A Griffithville man has filed paperwork for a constitutional modification to legalize leisure marijuana in Arkansas.
If handed, the modification would legalize leisure marijuana for these 21 and older and require the state to problem licenses for dispensaries to promote the drug.
Cedric King submitted poll language for the modification to the Arkansas Legal professional Normal’s workplace Tuesday for evaluate, a required step earlier than he can start the petition effort. The lawyer common’s workplace has till April 2 to problem a response.
King is listed as having a put up workplace field in Griffithville, in line with a spokesman for the lawyer common’s workplace. Griffithville is in White County.
To make the November poll, the petition for the modification will want 90,704 signatures changed into the secretary of state’s workplace by July 5.
Underneath the modification, Arkansas residents could buy as much as 4 ounces of smokable or vaporizable leisure marijuana a day and personal or buy 12 marijuana crops. Arkansans additionally will probably be allowed to buy “any amount” of hashish seeds or “meals or drink merchandise produced from leisure marijuana.”
For potential marijuana companies, the modification would require the state to problem two lessons of licenses. A Class A license “would allow the possession, cultivation, transport and sale of leisure marijuana crops and seeds.” A Class B license “would allow the possession, cultivation, manufacturing, transport and sale of leisure marijuana crops, seeds, and permits the manufacturing and sale of produced from the plant,” in line with the modification’s poll title.
For each sorts of licenses, “any grownup resident residing within the State of Arkansas for (3) years or extra shall qualify to acquire such a license.” The utmost the state can cost for a Class A license is $250 and for a Class B license $500 a 12 months.
The modification requires the Arkansas Division of Agriculture and the Alcoholic Beverage Management Division to supervise the licenses for leisure marijuana.
The modification stipulates just a few prohibitions, particularly requiring the sale of marijuana merchandise to be at the least 1,500 ft away from a college, church or daycare facility.
The proposal additionally would create an 8% excise tax and a 5% native gross sales tax on leisure marijuana.
The leisure modification just isn’t the primary try and legalize adult-use hashish in Arkansas after the voters rejected an modification to legalize adult-use hashish in 2022. The 2022 modification would have allowed for adults to buy as much as one ounce of leisure marijuana and allowed for 120 dispensaries to be licensed to promote the drug.
Final month, Legal professional Normal Tim Griffin authorised poll wording for a proposed modification to develop entry to medical marijuana that, if handed, will enable nurse practitioners, physicians’ assistants and pharmacists — along with medical doctors — to approve of affected person playing cards and permit Arkansans to develop medical marijuana at dwelling.
The proposed modification additionally would legalize leisure marijuana, however provided that the federal authorities ends its prohibition towards the drug. If the federal marijuana prohibition ends, Arkansans will be capable of personal one ounce of marijuana whereas licensed cultivators and dispensaries would be capable of legally promote hashish for leisure use.
The favored identify for the measure is the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Modification of 2024, and it’s backed by Arkansans for Affected person Entry, a poll query committee financed by the medical marijuana business.