Friday, September 28, 2012

Arkansas Medical Marijuana Initiative Fends Off Ballot Challenge

by Phillip Smith, September 27, 2012, 06:19pm Posted in: Ballot Measures Marijuana -- Personal Use Marijuana Industry News Brief The Arkansas Supreme Court Thursday rejected a bid to keep the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act off the November ballot. That means voters there will have the chance to make it the first state in the South to embrace medical marijuana.

File:Acapulco-gold.jpg We at the Marijuana Policy Project are very proud to support Issue 5 and Arkansans for Compassionate Care and are glad that the state Supreme Court saw fit to dismiss this baseless challenge," said MPP communications director Morgan Fox. "The people of Arkansas deserve a chance to have their voices heard, just as seriously ill Arkansans deserve a chance to live normal lives without being treated like criminals.

"The tightly regulated system that would be implemented by the passage of this initiative would provide relief to numerous patients suffering from severely debilitating conditions while taking resources out of the hands of criminals and increasing public safety. This is not a partisan issue," continued Fox. "It is a matter of compassion. Hopefully other states in the region will take their cue from Arkansas and begin to explore similar policy alternatives to putting sick people in jail."

Under the proposal, qualifying health conditions would include cancer, glaucoma, HIV, AIDS and Alzheimer's disease. The proposal also would allow qualifying patients or a designated caregiver to grow marijuana if the patient lives more than 5 miles from a dispensary.
Medical marijuana is also on the ballot this year in Massachusetts, while in Montana, an initiative that would undo the gutting of that state's program by the legislature is also on the ballot.
Little Rock, AR
United States
Full story at stopthedrugwar.org

2 comments:

TheWayfarer said...

Would make too much money and sense:
WHY IS IT this is the one area where politicians DON'T want to get revenue!?
If somebody is dying, what fucking difference is it going to make if they get stoned?

texlahoma said...

Galt - Good point.
When you think about it, we have been conditioned to think that it's the government's business what we feel, what we experience and that they should be able to tell us
"No!"
"You are not allowed to experience this feeling!"

(I wonder if they'll ever try to make love illegal.)


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