Pubdate: Wed, 24 Aug 2016
Source: Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette (Fayetteville, AR)
Copyright: 2016 Northwest Arkansas Newspapers LLC.
Contact: http://www.nwaonline.com/submit/letter/
Website: http://www.nwaonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/828
Author: Brian Fanney

NEW GROUP JOINS FIGHT AGAINST TWO 'POT' INITIATIVES

A new group has formed to coordinate attacks on the proposed Arkansas 
Medical Cannabis Act and Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment.

State Surgeon General Greg Bledsoe is serving as spokesman for the 
group, Arkansans Against Legalized Marijuana.

Members include: the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce, the Arkansas 
Farm Bureau Federation, the Coalition for Safer Arkansas Communities, 
the Family Council Action Committee and the Arkansas Committee for 
Ethics Policy.

"Well, it's a very diverse coalition," Bledsoe said in an interview 
Tuesday. "We decided to put together all of our collective thinking 
on this because we're unified on the fact that we think the medical 
marijuana issues would be bad for the state."

The group exists to "advocate the disqualification and defeat" of 
both medical marijuana ballot initiatives, according to a filing 
posted to the Arkansas Ethics Commission's website on Tuesday.

Asked about disqualification advocacy from the ballot, Bledsoe said a 
team of lawyers are reviewing both the act and the amendment.

"If there's something in there that the attorneys feel is inaccurate 
or doesn't properly describe what this legislation is and does, then 
they would seek to ask the courts to remove it from the ballot," he said.

The Medical Cannabis Act was approved for the ballot by Secretary of 
State Mark Martin's office. The Medical Marijuana Amendment submitted 
additional signatures to the office on Friday and is awaiting a 
ruling by Martin's office on whether it has sufficient signatures to 
make the ballot too.

Bledsoe said it is deceptive to call marijuana medicine.

"It's a plant. It hasn't gone through [Food and Drug Administration] 
approval," he said. "I do believe there are compounds in the 
marijuana plant that hold some promise for helping patients, but the 
correct process is to go through the FDA and do the things that we 
would do for any other pharmaceutical."

Bledsoe said Arkansans Against Legalized Marijuana "wants to educate 
people about what's going to actually be on the ballot."

Of the Medical Cannabis Act, he said tax revenue would not be enough 
to cover the cost of regulation by the state Department of Health 
and, if excess tax revenue are generated, they would go toward 
subsidizing the cost of medical marijuana for low-income residents.

"That just boggles the brain why they would attack the 
affordability," said Melissa Fults, campaign manager for Arkansans 
for Compassionate Care, which supports the act. "I mean, why attack 
poor people?"

The program will also pay for itself, she added.

Of the Medical Marijuana Amendment, Bledsoe said a powerful 
commission would be created that would control the marijuana trade in Arkansas.

"The commission gets to decide who gets the licenses for the 
dispensaries and who gets the licenses for the cultivation facilities 
and some of the qualifications for those. They also get to decide how 
much marijuana the cultivation facilities can grow," said David 
Couch, a Little Rockbased lawyer who is backing the amendment.

"We wanted the commission to have some sort of control to make sure 
there wasn't an excessive amount of marijuana being grown in the 
state of Arkansas, which I thought was a very responsible thing to do."

Jerry Cox, executive director of the Arkansas Family Council Action 
Committee, said that Arkansans Against Legalized Marijuana wouldn't 
prevent its members from campaigning individually.

"The understanding is that each group is still autonomous and can 
campaign as they think they need to reach their constituency," he 
said. "For example, the way Farm Bureau might approach it, or the 
chamber, might be a little different than how I might approach it 
with a church audience."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom