KUAR | By Josie Lenora
A group attempting to broaden access to medical marijuana in Arkansas says they have finished collecting signatures.
Image by Dave Cameron
Arkansans for Patient Access is attempting to put an amendment on the ballot which, if approved by voters, would widely expand medical marijuana across the state. If the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment passes, it will allow the drug to be prescribed for almost all medical conditions, as opposed to the narrow list of conditions allowed for the drug now.
A month ago, Arkansans for Patient Access turned in well over the roughly 90,000 signatures needed to qualify for the ballot; in total, they turned in 111,402 signatures. Of those, 77,000 were deemed valid by Secretary of State John Thurston, whose office was tasked with counting and validating the signatures for all the proposed amendments. Under Arkansas law, if 75% of the initial signatures are deemed valid, groups are then given a 30-day “cure period” to collect more signatures.