Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Bill requiring pharmacists in pot dispensaries passes
A bill that would require medical marijuana dispensaries to sell vaping equipment and employ pharmacists passed the House on Tuesday.
House Bill 2180 by Rep. Clint Penzo, R-Springdale, was approved in a 81-8 vote after Rep. Douglas House, who is organizing medical marijuana in the House, spoke against it.
“We’re writing regulation after regulation after regulation and putting it into the Constitution,” House, R-North Little Rock, said.
But supporters of the bill said it was simply an effort to treat medical marijuana ike medicine.
Rep. Robin Lundstrum, R-Elm Springs, said when a doctor writes a prescription, patients go to a pharmacist to have it filled.
Rep. Deborah Ferguson, D-West Memphis, said clerks at dispensaries would have no medical knowledge.
And Rep. Andy Mayberry, R-Hensley, said what supporters “voted for was supposedly medical marijuana.”
The bill now heads to the Senate for further consideration. Changes to the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment, approved by voters in November, require a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate.
Also on Tuesday, three of House’s medical marijuana bills failed in the Senate. The votes were later expunged to make way for future votes.
House Bill 1580 by House would impose a 4 percent tax on medical marijuana when it changes hands. That amounts to about a 22 percent tax on medical marijuana patients after it compounds from a grower to a dispensary to a user, said Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, who presented the bill. The bill failed to pass in a 23-4 vote.
She said it was needed to pay for enforcement and regulation of the state medical marijuana industry.
“This is the tax that is required to operate the program,” Irvin said. “This is a necessary evil.”
Sen. Jake Files, R-Fort Smith, argued against the bill, saying fees imposed on marijuana facilities are expected to generate millions of dollars to support the program. He is chairman of the Senate Revenue and Tax Committee.
“The tax is not needed,” he said.
House Bill 1371 by House would close a loophole in the marijuana amendment, Irvin said. Amendment 98, as it’s known, requires 60 percent of the facilities’ owners to be Arkansans, but it doesn’t specify what share of the businesses’ ownership Arkansans must hold.
It also would require individuals to hold the medical marijuana licenses instead of business entities like limited liability corporations.
Sen. John Cooper, R-Jonesboro, said the measure could result in shadow business owners controlling Arkansans who put their name on a license.
Irvin said she’s not sure the bill could prevent that, but the change matches the intent of the people who wrote the bill. It makes more Arkansan ownership possible.
Out-of-state companies have intensely lobbied against the bill. It failed in a 18-11 vote.
House Bill 2094 by House would authorize the acquisition of seeds, cuttings, clones and plants by a cultivation facility. It failed 22-1.