The Arkansas Drug Policy Education Group has been instrumental in helping with the rollout of medical marijuana in our state. The DPEG was behind Issue 7, on the ballot in November of 2016, which was struck down by the Arkansas Supreme Court. However, they persist in advancing the cause by continuing to help make Issue 6 (which passed, now Amendment 98) better for Arkansas patients.
Currently, Arkansas has a fairly good starting list of qualifying medical conditions that would make a patient eligible for an MMJ card.
The Arkansas DPEG seeks to add 11 medical conditions to the existing list.
Proposed additional medical marijuana conditions:
- ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) / ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)
- Anxiety
- Asthma
- Autism
- Bipolar Disorder
- Bulimia
- COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease)
- Depression
- Insomnia (Severe)
- Migraines
- Traumatic Brain Injury
To add these conditions to the approved list, the DPEG will follow the procedures outlined by the Arkansas Department of Health (ADH) for adding qualifying medical conditions. They hope to have these approved by the time the ADH starts issuing MMJ patient cards.
Here’s the current list of qualifying medical conditions:
- Cancer
- Glaucoma
- HIV+/AIDS
- Hepatitis C
- ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis)
- Tourette’s Syndrome
- Crohn’s Disease
- Ulcerative Colitis
- PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder)
- Severe Arthritis
- Fibromyalgia
- Alzheimer’s Disease
- Cachexia or Wasting Syndrome
- Peripheral Neuropathy
- Intractable Pain
- Defined as pain that has not responded to ordinary medications, treatment, or surgical measures for more than six (6) months
- Severe Nausea
- Seizures
- Including without limitation those characteristic of epilepsy; or severe and persistent muscle spasms, including without limitation those characteristic of multiple sclerosis
Many thanks to Melissa Fults and others with the Arkansas Drug Policy Education Group for their tireless work on this subject.
Melissa Fults, Charter Member of the Arkansas Drug Policy Education Group
The Arkansas Drug Policy Education Group sponsored Issue 7, the other Arkansas medical marijuana ballot initiative which was struck down by the Arkansas Supreme Court
The Fults have been tirelessly dedicated to safe, affordable, and compassionate access since DAY 1, and I, along with hundreds of campaign volunteers and thousands of Arkansas residents that signed OUR petition owe them tremendously for keeping our voices heard, still! THANK YOU!
Thank-you Melissa for fighting for Arkansans to be able to get the medication we NEED to heal our bodies!!! YOU are a warrior!!!
To who ever reads this I hope and pray for those who got this medical marijuana amendment rolling in AR I voted for the one a few years ago.
In 2011 I injured my back thought it was a pulled muscle but it turned out to be much more I’ve been through the mill on all the prescription pain medications tolerance to opioids is miserable to say the least the ladders I’ve climbed Hydrocodone, Gabbapintin, Oxycodone,MS Contin, Baclofin, Morphine, Lyrica,Cymbalta,
Percocett,Hydromorphone,Tromadol,Soma,Steroid injections 4 of them ,I’m also dealing with Heart Disease, Glouchoma, spinal stenosis, muscle spasms, sciatica,type 2 diabetes the neuropathy wakes me up with my feet and hands burning tingling, I usually sleep about 2 to 3 hours a night I pray the get this going I can see where I’ll have to take my heart medications,but hopefully I can get rid of all these anxiety pills and pain pills from my research on glouchoma and cannabis this will help my optomologist said I had one of the largest optical nerves he’s ever seen he said it’s huge .Thanks for hearing me rant on maybe things will get started by the end of this year prayfully and things will get better.
Mike,
Thanks for the well-articulated account of how the opioid addiction epidemic is affecting Arkansans.
My mom became addicted to pain pills because of chronic pain, and the pain pills got the best of her. She ended up dying in a rehab facility. Seeing her struggle with this addiction is why I am so passionate about medical marijuana for patients in Arkansas.
Thanks for helping us to fight the good fight for Arkansans in need of pain relief who don’t want to resort to opioids.
– Storm
Have seen so many lives destructed because of opioids and am currently raising a child who’s birth mom was an RN before her addiction . I know the norm is that just doesn’t happen to normal people but it definetly does . I also have several dibiltating diseases and have never taken opioids out of fear of it’s devastating affects . The smoking of marijuana is the only releif I can get to have it be illegal is the crime . Let’s get opioids at the bottom of destructive pharmaceuticals list and bring back the natural methods of relief .
I don’t understand addiction to pills. im currently taking 13 pain pills a day. hydros-5 tramadol-4 lyrica- 3 isosorbide- 1….they don’t work. HB 1400 …let me smoke a joint, im tirred of the pain. I really don’t want to move
Charles, I”ve taken every single one of those pills, except the isosorbide for a heart condition. The only actual Narcotic pain pill on your list is hydrocodone. Which in fact is on the lower end of pain pills so to speak. If u don’t understand how average normal people become addicted to them, then some research on your part is requtired I had major back surgery in 2009, so I understand pain. I’m so looking forward to healing my body by CANNABIS!
Mr Nolan I’m not addicted like a junkie ,first off sorry for your loss I started on the lowest dosages of pain medications til I reached the tolerance levels of each one to the other let me explain I was seeing the pain clinic in Missouri started out with hydrocodone 5/600 mg 3 x daily plus soma 30mg 4 x daily for muscle tension I had my first painful epidural steroid injection the injection didn’t work so the doctor scheduled me for a second epidural injection three months down the road still didn’t work the hydrocodone after about ten months and two increases up to 4 x daily they didn’t kill my pain so after 12 months they increased the dose of hydrocodone to 10/375 3x daily switched me from soma to tramadol 5mg 3x daily and said they wanted me to start taking the hydrocodone which was at it’s highest dose 6 x a day I thought this is stupid then I told the doctor that I’ve been taking hydrocodone now for two years their not taking care of my pain I’m still hurting especially in the morning after tossing and turning in bed I can barely walk in the morning then he wanted to give me another epidural I said they don’t work either he’s suggested me take more hydrocodone and I’m going to start you on gabbapintin 800mg 2x daily and stop tramadol I asked about switching me to another pain med other than hydrocodone he said no you keep taking hydrocodone just take 8 a day so I was getting 180 hydrocodone a month I even told the pharmacist that they didn’t work any more their like taking candy the one day I happened to see different doctor and explained to him that the hydrocodone wasn’t working he asked me what I suggest he do I told him I get on this website called drugs.com its an FDA site and keep up with what I’m taking and what theses medications are doing to my body and read that oxycodone was the step up from hydrocodone he said years it is and I said start me on that for a while see what happens and he did best sleep I had in over a year that night that was 4 years ago now I finally listened to my wife and switched doctors and I’ve worked up to the MSContin /morphine sulfate from 30mg daily till now 100 mg 2x daily and the middle of 2016 started taking oxycodone/acceitamenafin 7.5 which is really Percocet 2x daily for breaking through pain I have swayback my lower spine is pushing forward to the extent that its pinching nerves and discs been told not to pick up more than a gallon of milk I take my medications exactly like they say well I take more of the Percocet than the morphine because I know its less dangerous so bring on the cannabis I’ll throw away the pills I have never liked taking pills .
No comment mr Nolan hmmmm figures they keep coming up bills to knock cannabis out seems like the pharmacist in Arkansas are going to win out as much money as they make off of pills I guess I’d be upset too if some one was knocking on my door to take my profits away every body goes to cannabis they won’t make all that money they been peeling out of the poor man’s pockets I’m biting my tounge as I say this because I haven’t herd what the prices of cannabis is going to be per gram or 7 grams I imagine it will be extremely high and seeing how there going to make sure we can’t get medical cannabis from anywhere but Arkansas with our med cards not being allowed to purchase from other said States we’re just shot outta luck maybe your 53 percent that voted will move to where the communities care for there people outside of Arkansas y’all be happy you won’t have to deal with it no more it’ll be the only state that will come last like everything else that’s good for the people you keep taking it right out of our hands .
How is Lupus as well as a host of other chronic autoimmune diseases not on either list???
That’s a great question. We need to support Melissa Fults and the Drug Policy Education Group in their efforts to add qualifying conditions to the list.
Please put a TBI on the list.
Thank you for the suggestion. We’re still waiting on the Department of Health to publish their petition so that we can start the process.
Was a fire fighter for the usfs in California and the western United States for 13 years.Was in a crash got a TBI was in a comma for six weeks.Couldnt do my job safe because of my injury so my work put me on disability.Moved to the beautiful state of Arkansas in 20014. Cost of living is to much in California so here I am suffering with out my medicine.Please put a traumatic brain injury as a condition.I don’t like to take any pills at all. Not even for my headaches which is just one of the reasons doctors gave me a medical marijuana card for.Arkansas please help me have a better quality life for me and my brain.
Parkinson disease should be on the list
Barbara, thank you for your comment, and we agree. In the meantime, a person with Parkinson’s disease displaying symptoms including persistent muscle spasms would be eligible as the law stands now.