The Arkansas Supreme Court approves a vote legalizing recreational cannabis in November, while the Oklahoma Supreme Court rejects it

Last week, the Associated Press broke the news of the Arkansas Supreme Court’s decision that the state’s voting measure on adult cannabis use could appear on the November ballot. In a similar situation, the Oklahoma Supreme Court dismissed an attempt by voters to bring recreational cannabis to this November’s election.

The decision came after Responsible Growth Arkansas asked the court to overturn an August decision by the State Board of Election Commissioners that prevented the measure from being put to a vote in November due to a technicality in the title language, even though the group had collected more than enough signatures.

A decisive victory

Without the court’s approval, Arkansas might have gone on without legalizing cannabis until next year or the next general election.

The Board of Election Commissioners’ findings that the measure’s ballot was misleading were overturned by the judges in a 5-2 decision. The legalization campaign filed a lawsuit, and the court ruled last month that the measure would appear on the ballot due to the approaching election deadlines. However, the court left open the possibility of counting the votes.

Election officials had raised concerns about possible voter confusion over the wording in the election title related to issues such as THC restrictions, but the court ultimately disagreed. In the court’s decision, Justice Robin Wynne said the public would vote in November on whether to accept the proposed change. He noted that “initiative power lies at the heart of our democratic institutions”.

He continued: “To ensure that the electoral title served the goals of reserving that power for the people, we offered it a liberal construction and interpretation. Note that we recognize that no elective title could ever satisfy all,” the court stated. Based on these criteria, we conclude that the contested elective title is adequate to provide a clear understanding of the meaning and scope of the proposed change .

The judges wrote that the state officials and pro-prohibition organizations that intervened in the lawsuit failed in their responsibility to prove that the ballot was inadequate. John Thurston, the state attorney general and committee chair, also agreed with the committee’s decision that the November initiative should not be considered.

The ball is in motion

According to Steve Lancaster, an attorney for Responsible Growth Arkansas, all cannabis supporters in the state, particularly the Responsible Growth Arkansas group, are incredibly grateful to the Supreme Court for its approval. Lancaster said it was a perfect endorsement of everything the group had done. According to him, the team is more than ready to win the November elections.

In July, Arkansas’ Responsible Growth Campaign submitted over 193,000 signatures, more than enough to qualify the constitutional amendment. The Secretary of State’s office later said it had reviewed enough petitions to ensure there were enough valid signatures to put the question on the ballot.

The first amendment to legalize adult-use cannabis in Arkansas will now go to a vote in November after nearly 200,000 Arkansans signed the Arkansas Responsible Growth Petition. According to a poll conducted last week, 59 percent of potential voters support the legalization initiative. However, the pro-legalization campaign does not take victory for granted. Last month, they produced an ad reminding citizens that the state’s vote to legalize marijuana was a “vote in support of the police.”

The proposed initiative for adult use

The proposal would allocate 15% of tax revenue from the sale of adult-use marijuana to law enforcement. Some reform advocates have raised concerns about the law enforcement elements of the campaign.

Meanwhile, several Republican state legislators are outspoken against the proposal. For example, former Drug Enforcement Administration head Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) urged police not to back the measure, implying its passage was a foregone conclusion.

Below are some of the objectives that the proposed action would achieve if successful.

• The bill would reform the state’s current medical cannabis program, which voters approved in 2016, in a number of ways, including citing patient residency requirements.

• Regulators would need to license current medical cannabis dispensaries to serve adult customers and allow them to open a separate retail location for the sale of recreational marijuana only. Licenses would be distributed through a lottery system for 40 other adult-use businesses.

• Law enforcement would receive 15% of taxpayers’ money, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences 10%, and the state drug courts program 5%. (five percent). The state fund receives the remaining funds.

bottom line

The Responsible Growth Arkansas group is one of many pro-cannabis campaign groups in Arkansas. Although many of these groups pursued cannabis reform by voting, most failed to garner enough signatures to qualify this year. Some people have stated that they would try again in 2024 using different strategies.

Supporters of the independent campaigns Arkansas True Grass and Arkansans for Marijuana Reform have expressed concerns about the Arkansas proposal’s good growth clauses, claiming that they favor large companies in the existing medicinal cannabis market.

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