The choice facing voters on Issue No. 5, the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act, is complicated by key points that are not widely known. A common argument is that more research is needed to prove marijuana an effective medicine, and if that research could be done, and Food and Drug Administration approval granted, then everything would be fine.

In fact, this is a classic Catch 22. The scientific community has struggled for years to gain permission to conduct this research. Such studies are never approved. Approval must come from multiple federal agencies including the Drug Enforcement Agency, which has billions of dollars of vested interest in the status quo.

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