Monday was a busy day at the state capitol for medical marijuana legislation. Here are the highlights: SB357 (smoking ban) failed in a full Senate vote – 11 yea, 15 nay – has to have 18 yeas to pass HB1369 (setting up MMJ fund from sales tax revenue) was sent back to the Senate Committee on...

The Alcohol Control Board, the Arkansas agency that governs the operations of the medical marijuana dispensaries and cultivation facilities is meeting to discuss their draft rules. Here’s the full article from Arkansas Times.

The Arkansas Medical Marijuana Commission (AMMC) has completed the rule-making process for dispensary and cultivation facility applications. Here are the final draft rules. State law requires that all rules be subject to a public hearing. In this case, the AMMC appears to be open to changing the proposed rules if they receive strong public feedback...

All of the commissioners are present – Travis Story is participating over conference call. Dr. Carlos Roman brought up the question of how a school is defined as referenced in Amendment 98, governing MMJ in Arkansas. To clarify, there are minimum distances that a cultivation facility or dispensary must be from churches, schools, and daycares....

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...

Watch the AETN panel discussion giving a very good update on the state of the medical marijuana rollout in Arkansas: Guests include: Robert Brech, chief legal counsel for the Arkansas Department of Health Bud Roberts, director of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Administration State Representative Douglas House Steve Barnes will serve as host

The Arkansas Department of Health (ADH) has published their draft rules and regulations governing medical marijuana registration, testing, and labeling in Arkansas. This is important to the MMJ industry because the ADH controls these aspects of the business in Arkansas: Ease of patient registration and renewal periods for MMJ cards The list of qualifying medical conditions...

Here’s a good discussion about surety bonds and other license fees that will be a part of the cultivation facility and dispensary applications: Click here for the full article on Arkansas Business

Update from Melissa Fults with DPEG from today’s legislative committee meetings: – HB1298 – natural person language – passed committee – HB1371 – natural person language – passed committee – SB254 – dispensary no grow – passed committee with ‘may’ clause where MMC could allow up to 50 plants Next committee meeting to hear MMJ...

Representative Douglas House, normally an ally to the industry, promised a fellow lawmaker yesterday that he’d sponsor a bill to eliminate advertising for the medical marijuana industry. This is not good for Arkansas medical marijuana patients, the MMJ industry, or free speech. No other legal medicine manufacturers or pharmacies are banned from advertising their product....