Our Mission
The Arkansas Cannabis Industry Association (ACIA) is a 501(c)(6) cannabis industry trade association advocating for laws, regulations, and public policies that foster a healthy, professional and accountable medical cannabis industry in our state.
Our mission has four main components:
- Advocating for the Industry
- Education
- Bringing the Industry Together
- Protecting Patients
Advocating for the Industry
ACIA is committed to becoming a recognized and trusted voice before policymakers, regulators, and the community at large. We are charged with protecting the industry from overly burdensome regulations and laws that would impede industry growth and infringe on the rights of patients to access medical cannabis. To achieve these goals, we actively monitor new proposed legislation and regulatory actions supporting and/or advocating against policies that would do harm to the industry. Simply, we serve as the eyes and ears for the industry.
Education
Knowledge is key to the success of Arkansas’s medical cannabis industry. The more that patients, physicians, and industry businesses know about medical cannabis, the stronger the industry will be.
Patients
We hold patient education seminars in order to teach Arkansans about the science behind medical cannabis, how medical cannabis can treat the current qualifying medical conditions, how to find a physician to write a medical cannabis certification, and how to submit the application for a patient card to the Arkansas Department of Health (ADH).
Physicians
We hold seminars geared towards the healthcare industry (nurses, doctors, and pharmacists) in order to educate them about medical cannabis and how it interacts with the body’s endocannabinoid system. Many physicians are hesitant to write medical cannabis certifications for their patients because they don’t understand the medical benefits of the cannabinoids found in the cannabis plant; this has not been taught in medical school. These seminars, which often award CEU credits, are designed to allow healthcare professionals to be able to have informed conversations about medical cannabis with their patients. As a reminder, doctors are not required to prescribe or recommend medical cannabis for their patients, they are just certifying that patients have a listed qualifying medical condition, as recognized by the ADH.
Business License Holders
ACIA offers professional development and networking opportunities to our industry members. We’ve held seminars ranging from taxation to extraction, to general business operations and security. We want to help industry participants operate better businesses, providing high quality and affordable cannabis to the patients of Arkansas.
Bringing the Industry Together
ACIA is an association that aims to meet the diverse needs of our members by providing exceptional professional development and networking opportunities.
It is APAIC’s goal to work closely with cultivators and dispensaries to develop a robust industry in Arkansas that meets the needs of our state’s medical cannabis patients while protecting the best interests of the businesses that serve them.
Protecting Patients
Patients in Arkansas deserve high quality, safe, and affordable medical cannabis. We aim to promote cannabis product safety by educating our members on proper production, testing, and packaging procedures. We also protect patients by advocating against overly burdensome laws and regulations that would make medical cannabis more expensive in Arkansas. For example, we fought against proposed bills that would have prohibited the sale of cannabis in Arkansas until it becomes legal federally, we fought against bans on smoking cannabis, and we fought against a ban on cannabis edibles, which is often a preferred method of ingestion for the elderly.