By Steve Elliott
Hemp News
The wording of a proposal to legalize medical marijuana in Arkansas was approved on Thursday by state Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, and supporters are now gathering signatures to qualify for next year's ballot.
The group will need 62,507 signatures from registered voters in order to appear on the November 2014 ballot, reports The Associated Press.
Atty. Gen. McDaniel certified the wording of the proposal from Arkansans for Compassionate Care, the same group behind an initiative that was narrowly rejected (49 percent yes, 51 percent no) by voters last year.
The proposal would allow authorized patients with qualifying conditions to buy cannabis from nonprofit dispensaries or to grow their own marijuana if they don't have reasonable access to transportation to a dispensary. Sales tax revenues from the dispensaries would first cover the costs of administering the program, and the remainder would be split evenly between the Newborn Umbilical Cord Initiative Fund and state drug education programs.
A separate proposal, from the group Arkansans for Responsible Marijuana, includes similar provisions and was certified by the Attorney General in August, but unlike the proposal certified on Thursday, the other measure would not allow patients to grow their own marijuana.
