LITTLE ROCK (AP) - Arkansas voters could see multiple attempts to legalize medical marijuana on the ballot next year.

Two groups are vying to put similar proposed initiated acts before voters in 2014 after a push to legalize medical marijuana narrowly failed in the November 2012 general election.

This week, a measure from a group called Arkansans for Responsible Medicine moved a step closer to voters when Attorney General Dustin McDaniel certified its popular name and ballot title. That organization can now begin gathering signatures in an effort to qualify for a spot on next year's ballot.

[continues 530 words]

Attorney General Dustin McDaniel on Tuesday cleared the way for medical marijuana supporters to begin collecting signatures to qualify one group's ballot measure for the 2014 general election ballot.

But McDaniel rejected a similar proposal from another group.

McDaniel ruled that the proposed popular name and ballot title submitted by Arkansans for Responsible Medicine are legally sufficient. The group's co-chairmen are David Couch of Little Rock and Chris Kell of Greenbrier.

The popular name of the proposed initiated act is The Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act, McDaniel said. The title must include an impartial summary of the proposed ballot measure that will give voters a fair understanding of the issues presented, he said.

[continues 511 words]

LITTLE ROCK - A proposal to legalize medical marijuana in Arkansas is one step closer to going before voters next year after the state's top lawyer approved a request Tuesday to certify the measure's popular name and ballot title.

The proposal from Arkansans for Responsible Medicine would allow patients with qualifying conditions to purchase marijuana from nonprofit dispensaries with a doctor's recommendation. However, unlike a similar measure that narrowly failed in the November 2012 general election, the revised proposal would not allow certain patients to grow their own marijuana.

[continues 248 words]

In general, we're not keen on looking to Illinois and direction on, well, almost anything.

But Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn did the right thing last week when he signed into law a bill that approves medical marijuana for Illinois residents, making our neighbor to the south the 20th state, along with the District of Columbia, to legalize pot for medical purposes.

Wisconsin should step up and do the same, an act that would give our residents who suffer from many debilitating conditions the same relief that is available now in nearly half the country.

[continues 283 words]

LITTLE ROCK (AP) - Supporters of a proposed constitutional amendment that would legalize marijuana in Arkansas have submitted a revised plan to Attorney General Dustin McDaniel.

The proposal was revised and submitted Friday by Arkansans For Medical Cannabis after McDaniel in July rejected the wording of the proposed initiated act as ambiguous. The proposed ballot measure would leave it to voters to decide whether to legalize marijuana, including for medical, industrial and recreational use.

The measure must be certified by McDaniel before the group can begin gathering signatures in an effort to qualify for a spot on the 2014 ballot.

[end]

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Supporters of a proposed constitutional amendment that would legalize marijuana in Arkansas have submitted a revised plan to Attorney General Dustin McDaniel.

The proposal was revised and submitted Friday by Arkansans For Medical Cannabis after McDaniel in July rejected the wording of the proposed initiated act as ambiguous.

The proposed ballot measure would leave it to voters to decide whether to legalize marijuana, including for medical, industrial and recreational use.

The measure must be certified by McDaniel before the group can begin gathering signatures in an effort to qualify for a spot on the 2014 ballot.

[end]

LITTLE ROCK (AP) - The mother of a young man who authorities say fatally shot himself while handcuffed in the backseat of an Arkansas patrol car has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Jonesboro, its police chief and two officers.

Lawyers for Chavis Carter's mother, Teresa Rudd, filed the federal lawsuit on Friday - almost a year to the day after Carter's death.

Jonesboro police have faced criticism about the circumstances surrounding the July 28, 2012 death of Carter. Officers said they searched him twice without finding a gun, but later noticed him slumped over and bleeding in the back of the patrol car.

[continues 210 words]

LITTLE ROCK (AP) - Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel has rejected the wording of a proposed initiated act that would legalize medical marijuana in the state.

McDaniel rejected the proposal in an opinion on Monday that says the proposal by Arkansans for Responsible Medicine contains ambiguities.

McDaniel's opinion says the proposed measure isn't clear enough about whether patients could grow their own marijuana at home. The opinion also says there's contradictory language in the proposal regarding nonprofit dispensaries.

Attorney David Couch for Arkansans for Responsible Medicine says he plans to address the issues McDaniel raised and resubmit a similar proposal.

The measure must be certified by McDaniel before the group can begin gathering signatures to qualify for a spot on the 2014 ballot.

[end]

Effectively confronting the abuse of prescription drugs requires a multidisciplinary approach in which police, doctors, pharmacists and educators trade approaches to treat and prevent addiction, the nation's drug czar said in Little Rock Thursday.

Many of those efforts have taken root at the state level, said R. Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. He highlighted efforts in Arkansas, including statewide drug take-back programs and a new prescription drug monitoring system that allows prescribers to track patients' use of potentially addictive substances.

[continues 594 words]

LITTLE ROCK (AP) - The president of an Arkansas conservative group that campaigned against legalizing medical marijuana said Friday that he agreed not to refer in certain ways to machines that dispense the drug in order to settle a lawsuit.

Medicine Dispensing Systems Inc., which makes the machines, had sued Jerry Cox and the Family Council Action Committee over comments he made about the machines last year at a news conference. U. S. District Judge James Moody dismissed the lawsuit Wednesday after the two sides reached an agreement.

[continues 254 words]

Police Chief Greg Tabor's one-man war on drugs is nothing more than a war against the poor and minorities of Washington and Madison counties. How much money does the Fayetteville Police Department or 4th Judicial District Drug Task Force get in federal grants? Is the amount of these grants dependent on the number of arrests and convictions they make? Where do the assets and money forfeited in these busts go? Do they go back into the service of the community, or are they funneled back into Fayetteville's own department?

[continues 51 words]

LITTLE ROCK - Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel has rejected a proposal to ask voters to end a prohibition on marijuana.

McDaniel rejected the proposal this week, saying it contains ambiguities.

The proposal from Arkansans for Medical Cannabis calls for an amendment to the state Constitution that declares cannabis to be an agricultural commodity, medicinal product and intoxicant.

McDaniel's opinion says that group previously submitted three similar measures, which the attorney general's office rejected.

Arkansans for Medical Cannabis spokesman Robert Reed says the group will review McDaniel's opinion and resubmit a similar proposal.

McDaniel this year also has rejected the wording of a proposed initiated act by another group called Arkansans for Compassionate Care. That group that campaigned for a medical marijuana initiative that voters rejected last year.

[end]

Having substantially less methamphetamine than it would take to fill a sugar packet is not enough reason to put a Mabelvale man out of his home, even temporarily, if it's not bothering his neighbors, a Pulaski County Circuit judge told Little Rock attorneys who are asking the judge to declare a 1,436-square-foot residence a public nuisance.

Judge Tim Fox denied a request by Assistant City Attorney Cliff Sward to issue a temporary order against Lewis Curtis "Kurt" Hammons II that would force the 42-yearold man to vacate and board up his 88-year-old home at 9715 Mabelvale Pike until a final hearing resolves whether his home should be deemed a nuisance by the judge, which would allow city officials to tear the home down and make Hammons pay for it.

[continues 324 words]

I'd argue that marijuana doesn't make a person laugh, just as it has been shown to not actually take pain away; it makes a person able to cope with it better. I believe the laughter is because marijuana helps a person return to a natural state of happiness, a level of consciousness that can let go and relax.

It is not like alcohol. Alcohol is an escape mechanism. Marijuana, rather, assists in allowing a person to understand and cope-huge difference. I imagine that is why so many PTSD sufferers are asking for it rather than the Xanax and klonopin the doctors prescribe. Depression and anxiety have shown remarkable benefits from marijuana. Humans have used marijuana since we entered this earth. Only in recent times, under the too-familiar guise of safety, have governments outlawed its use.

[continues 103 words]

Interstate 40 Search at Issue

An Arkansas State Police drug dog showing interest in a vehicle but not expressly indicating the presence of drugs was not enough probable cause to search it for contraband, a Little Rock attorney told the Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday.

Robert Golden told the court that the Lonoke County Circuit Court erred in denying a motion to suppress evidence in a bench trial that led to Ronald Jackson's conviction of possession of a controlled substance. Jackson was sentenced to five years in prison.

[continues 755 words]

Jasper School Board members are weighing whether a proposed drug-testing policy designed to prevent drug use among teenagers is worth the invasion of student privacy.

The School Board of the Newton County school district of 900 students will review the policy at its next meeting May 9. Board President Stacey Clark anticipates a vote on the policy but said the board could delay a decision and recommend revisions, he said.

"It's going to be a big decision for our district," he said.

[continues 775 words]

Why does it seem that the harder the drug warriors fight, the worse the drug problem gets?

All the drugs confiscated in the recent HITS roundup are just a drop in the bucket of all the illegal drugs sold and consumed in Arkansas. I think the drug war is huge business for a vast bureaucracy of drug enforcement agencies, state and local law enforcement, private prison contractors, the pharmaceutical companies and even liquor manufacturers. Not to mention the billions being raked in by the Mexican cartels.

[continues 135 words]

A writer asks whether moral behavior matters (Public Viewpoint, March 13), then launches into a murky rant about marijuana, among other things. He claims THC (the primary intoxicant in marijuana and one of many chemical ingredients) is "a chemical the brain and body don't agree with."

Perhaps he's not aware the human body manufactures its own chemically-identical version of THC called "endocannabinoids," and there are plasma membrane protein receptors for this chemical throughout the body, largely in the central nervous system but also in other areas including, importantly, several immune system cells.

[continues 406 words]

What's good for the goose - in this case, Arkansas legislators - also should be good for the gander, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday against state Attorney General Dustin McDaniel.

In this situation, the gander is a group of Arkansas residents - acting as a registered ballot-question committee - that made a few minor changes to an old Arkansas House of Representatives bill regarding the medical use of marijuana.

The group, known as Arkansans for Medical Cannabis, then submitted the modified House bill to the attorney general in the form of a proposed ballot measure for the November 2014 election.

[continues 655 words]

The Arkansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union joined about two dozen other chapters Tuesday in a nationwide investigation to measure the scope of the so-called militarization of local police.

The state chapter sent Freedom of Information requests to law enforcement agencies statewide, including the Arkansas State Police and the Arkansas National Guard, said Holly Dickson, the chapter's legal director.

Beginning March 6, ACLU chapters nationwide sent out more than 250 Freedom of Information requests asking for information about SWAT teams - including the number and purpose of deployments and how often people are injured during deployments - and about newer weapons and technologies a department may be using, such as drones or GPS tracking devices. The Arkansas chapter also requested information on fusion centers - stations where federal, state and local law enforcement agencies share threat-related information across jurisdictional lines.

[continues 630 words]