Arkansas’s top elections official has determined that a campaign to put a medical marijuana expansion initiative on the state’s November ballot has come up short on signatures to qualify. But even with just weeks left until the election, the campaign is planning to fight back in court.
About a month after Arkansans for Patient Access (APA) turned in a final batch of petitions for the cannabis measure, with over 150,000 signatures from all of the state’s 75 counties, Secretary of State John Thurston (R) advised the campaign that only 88,040 were valid, whereas they needed 90,704.
The measure is still set to appear on the ballot given printing deadlines that have already passed, but as for now, votes will not be counted on the measure after Election Day.
After activists submitted an initial batch of petitions in early August, the state official advised they had an “insufficient” total at that time, kicking off a 30-day curing period for the campaign to make up the difference. According to Thurston’s office, they didn’t reach that goal.
Here’s the secretary of state’s message to the campaign:
“Our office has completed its review of the signatures collected during the thirty (30) day cure period for the above referenced petition. Our office determined that 10,521 signatures submitted during the cure period were deemed valid. When that number is combined with the number of signatures previously deemed valid in the initial submission, the total number of signatures is 88,040. For a proposed constitutional amendment, the required number of overall signatures in 2024 is 90,704. Therefore, I am obligated to deem your petition insufficient.”
The campaign pushed back against the state’s action, emphasizing that advocates “submitted over 150,000 signatures from all seventy-five counties, demonstrating clear support for an amendment that will remove barriers to access and reduce the cost of obtaining and maintaining a medical marijuana patient card.”
“Unfortunately, excluding 20,000 valid signatures collected during the cure period—due to an arbitrary, last-minute clerical rule change—is unfair and contrary to the democratic process.
The problem fro medical cannabis activists is a policy that blocked a separate proposed amendment to legalize abortion from ballot access which says that documents on training for paid canvassers need to be signed by the measure’s sponsor instead of a representative of the company that hired the petition collectors.
“The canvasser registration filings during that period were filed by an agent of the campaign thus in [the secretary of state’s] eyes invalidating those signatures,” spokesperson Bill Paschall told Little Rock Public Radio. “We maintain that canvasser registration filings are a delegable duty. The special master in the casino case took the same legal view.”
Regardless of the setback, APA spokesperson Melissa Fults told Marijuana Moment on Monday that the campaign plans to file a legal challenge against the secretary of state’s office on Tuesday.
“We feel that that we have been served injustice,” she said. “I think we have a really good case, because the state just made up rules at the last minute to fit their agenda. So we will file a lawsuit tomorrow, and if God forbid we fail, we’ll file another.”
The proposal was principally aimed at building upon the state’s existing medical cannabis program, which was created under an earlier voter-approved measure. It would have achieved that by making it so healthcare professionals could issue recommendations to patients for any condition they see fit and letting patients grow their own marijuana at home.
Nurse practitioners, physician’s assistants pharmacists and osteopathic doctors would have been added to the list of professionals who could make those recommendations. Also, patients wouldn’t have needed to renew their medical marijuana cards until three years, versus one year under the current law.
Further, the measure included a trigger provision that would have ended cannabis prohibition altogether in Arkansas if the federal government enacts legalization.
The initiative would have also permitted dispensaries to start selling pre-rolled joints.
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The state’s medical marijuana has proved popular since its implementation in 2019, with officials announcing in May that at least 102,000 residents have registered for patient cards, exceeding expectations.
Meanwhile, last August a law took effect in the state clarifying that medical marijuana patients can obtain concealed carry licenses for firearms.
Arkansas voters defeated a ballot initiative to more broadly legalize marijuana for adults in 2022.
Read the Arkansas secretary of state’s letter on the medical cannabis expansion measure below:
Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.
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