Group Approved to Circulate Petitions for Marijuana Amendment

Marijuana,

On Tuesday the Arkansas Attorney General’s office certified a popular name and ballot title for an amendment expanding marijuana legalization in Arkansas.

The group backing the measure now has until July 5 to collect 90,704 petition signatures to place the amendment on the ballot.

The amendment would change Arkansas’ medical marijuana law to enable recreational marijuana statewide. No longer would marijuana users need to suffer from a specific medical condition.

The amendment would drastically expand Arkansas’ laws to make it possible for people to grow and use marijuana at home. This would make it easier for people to use marijuana recreationally.

The amendment also would openly legalize marijuana in Arkansas if federal laws against marijuana are repealed.

Arkansas voters rejected marijuana legalization at the ballot box in 2022. The campaign against the 2022 marijuana amendment had only a fraction of the money that the marijuana industry had, but it was defeated by a broad coalition of churches, business groups, elected officials, and citizens who knew that marijuana would be bad for Arkansas. We anticipate similar opposition to this latest marijuana amendment as well.

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Arkansas State Police Seize Nearly 200 Pounds of Illegal Marijuana

Marijuana
Above: ASP seized 94 lbs. of illegal marijuana during a traffic stop earlier this month.

Last week the Arkansas State Police reported that troopers recently seized nearly 200 pounds of illegal marijuana over the course of multiple traffic stops.

According to an official press release, the suspects apprehended and charged with drug possession were from Texas, Nevada, and Florida.

Stories like this one serve as a reminder that marijuana’s legalization in other states has actually fueled the black market and the drug cartels rather than weakening them.

For example, California’s Unified Cannabis Enforcement Taskforce seized nearly $162 million worth of illegal marijuana during the first half of 2023.

Oregon has been inundated by industrial scale marijuana cultivation sites operated illegally by organized crime and drug cartels. Some of these marijuana operations are tied to labor trafficking and violent crime.

If Arkansas had passed marijuana amendment Issue 4 in 2022, our marijuana laws arguably would be more lax than many states’. Fortunately, voters rejected that measure at the ballot box.

Contrary to popular belief, legalization does not decrease drug-related crime, and it does not alleviate drug abuse. If anything, it seems to make these problems worse.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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WSJ Highlights Dangers of Drugged Driving

Marijuana

Marijuana affects motorists longer than many realize, according to a column published Monday in the Wall Street Journal.

The story notes,

Pot affects you differently than alcohol, can linger in your system for longer, and it can be harder to figure out when it’s safe to drive. Research from the University of California, San Diego, and elsewhere suggests you should wait at least four hours before getting behind the wheel after smoking one joint. Wait even longer—at least six to eight hours—after ingesting a cannabis edible. 

The story cites multiple studies about the dangers of driving under the influence of marijuana — including a 2021 study in the American Journal of Public Health that found car crash fatalities involving marijuana rose from 9% in 2000 to 21.5% in 2018.

Nationwide, marijuana legalization has caused serious problems in other states.

Authorities in California, Oregon, and other states continue to seize marijuana grown and sold illegally on the black market.

Research from California found infants were 35% more likely to die within the first year of birth if their mothers used marijuana heavily.

Regular marijuana use has been associated with lung problems and an increased risk of heart attack and stroke. A 2022 study published in the journal of the Radiological Society of North America found marijuana smoke may actually be more harmful to lungs than cigarette smoke.

States that have legalized marijuana have seen increases in drugged driving and traffic injuries as well.

All of this underscores what we have said for years: Marijuana may be many things, but “harmless” simply is not one of them.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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