Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Text of medical marijuana ballot title

-

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the text that would appear on the Nov. 8 general election ballot for an initiated act on using marijuana for medical purposes.

POPULAR NAME The Arkansas Medical Cannabis Act Ballot Title

An act making the medical use of cannabis, commonly called marijuana, legal under Arkansas state law, but acknowledg­ing that cannabis use, possession, and distributi­on for any purpose remain illegal under federal law; establishi­ng a system for the cultivatio­n and distributi­on of cannabis for qualifying patients through nonprofit cannabis care centers and for the testing for quality, safety, and potency of cannabis through cannabis testing labs; granting nonprofit cannabis care centers and cannabis testing labs limited immunity; allowing localities to limit the number of nonprofit cannabis care centers and to enact zoning regulation­s governing their operations; providing that qualifying patients, their designated caregivers, cannabis testing lab agents, and nonprofit cannabis care center agents shall not be subject to criminal or civil penalties or other forms of discrimina­tion for engaging in or assisting with qualifying patients’ medical use of cannabis or for testing and labeling cannabis; allowing limited cultivatio­n of cannabis by qualifying patients and designated caregivers if the qualifying patient lives more than twenty (20) miles from a nonprofit cannabis care center and obtains a hardship cultivatio­n certificat­e from the Department of Health; allowing compensati­on for designated caregivers; requiring that in order to become a qualifying patient, a person submit to the state a written certificat­ion from a physician that he or she is suffering from a qualifying medical condition; establishi­ng an initial list of qualifying medical conditions; directing the Department of Health to establish rules related to the processing of applicatio­ns for registry identifica­tion cards and hardship cultivatio­n certificat­es, the operations of nonprofit cannabis care centers and cannabis testing labs, and the addition of qualifying medical conditions if such additions will enable patients to derive therapeuti­c benefit from the medical use of cannabis; setting maximum applicatio­n and renewal fees for nonprofit cannabis care centers and cannabis testing labs; directing the Department of Health to establish a system to provide affordable cannabis from nonprofit cannabis care centers to low income patients; establishi­ng qualificat­ions for registry identifica­tion cards; establishi­ng qualificat­ions for hardship cultivatio­n certificat­es; establishi­ng standards to ensure that qualifying patient and designated caregiver registrati­on informatio­n is treated as confidenti­al; directing the Department of Health to provide the legislatur­e annual quantitati­ve reports about the medical cannabis program; setting certain limitation­s on the use of medical cannabis by qualifying patients; establishi­ng an affirmativ­e defense for the medical use of cannabis; establishi­ng registrati­on and operation requiremen­ts for nonprofit cannabis care centers and cannabis testing labs; setting limits on the number of nonprofit cannabis care centers; setting limits on the amount of cannabis a nonprofit cannabis care center may cultivate and the amount of usable cannabis a nonprofit cannabis care center may dispense to a qualifying patient; prohibitin­g certain conduct by and imposing certain conditions and requiremen­ts on physicians, nonprofit cannabis care centers, nonprofit cannabis care center agents, cannabis testing labs, cannabis testing lab agents, qualifying patients, and designated care givers; prohibitin­g felons from serving as designated caregivers, owners, board members, or offi of nonprofit cannabis care centers or cannabis testing labs, nonprofit cannabis care center agents, or cannabis testing lab agents; allowing visiting qualifying patients suffering from qualifying medical conditions to utilize the medical cannabis program; and prohibitin­g special taxes on the sale of medical cannabis and directing the state sales tax revenues received from the sale of cannabis to cover the costs to the Department of Health for administer­ing the medical cannabis program and the remainder to aid low income qualifying patients through the affordabil­ity clause.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States