Living in Texas, we have the cruel irony of being surrounded by states with more compassionate medical marijuana programs than our own. One prime example of this can be seen in the new cannabis reforms of our northeastern neighbor.
Arkansas, nicknamed the Natural State, has lived up to its reputation by legalizing the medical use of cannabis. This happened on November 8th, 2016, when 53% of Arkansas voters approved Issue 6, which was an amendment to the state constitution that legalized medicinal cannabis for the treatment of any of 17 qualifying medical conditions. As listed on the initiative’s requirements, between 20 and 40 cannabis dispensaries along with 4 to 8 cultivators are to be licensed by the state. Unfortunately, while this amendment was approved in 2016, licensed sales did not start until May 2019 when the state’s first dispensary, Doctor’s Orders RX, opened in Hot Springs. Since then, another 32 dispensaries and 5 cultivators have been licensed by the state but only six dispensaries are currently in operation.
Patients line up outside Doctor’s Orders RX in Hot Springs, AR (Photo: KATV)
According to Safe Access Now, the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Commission considers the qualifying conditions to be as follows: cancer, glaucoma, positive status for HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C, ALS, Tourette’s syndrome, Crohn’s Disease, Ulcerative colitis, PTSD, severe arthritis, fibromyalgia, Alzheimer’s disease, cachexia or wasting syndrome, peripheral neuropathy, intractable pain (which has not responded to ordinary medications, treatment or surgical measures for more than six months), severe nausea, seizures, including epilepsy, and severe and persistent muscle spasms, including multiple sclerosis. It is also possible to petition the department for consideration of an illness not covered in the list of qualifying conditions which will get approved or denied within 120 days of submission. For those that qualify, patients can purchase up to 2.5 ounces from a dispensary every 14 days.
As per the rules established by the Arkansas Department of Health, all one needs to do to get a medical marijuana ID card is be above age 18 or be a minor patient with parental consent, submit a completed application form, completed physician written certification, photocopy of an Arkansas driver’s license or state ID, and a nonrefundable fee of $50. This card will be active for a year or until the length of time determined by the physician.
Unlike states with more progressive medical marijuana programs like Oklahoma, Arkansas does not permit patients to grow their own medicine and restricts them to only getting access through the limited number of dispensaries currently in operation. Also, since there are still so few cultivators and thus little competition, the ones that do exist are able to charge more for their product which ends up making legal cannabis much more expensive than what is available in the underground market.
(Photo: Baxter Bulletin)
Unfortunately, only Arkansas residents are eligible for their state’s medical marijuana program but there is an exception for visiting patients. This can be anyone who is not a resident of Arkansas but is a registered medical marijuana patient in another state. The same requirements mentioned above also apply to visiting patients. With this in mind, some Texan medical marijuana patients, particularly those in East Texas, could really benefit from Arkansas’ medical marijuana program since their system doesn’t arbitrary cap THC levels to a dismal 0.5% which adversely affects those who depend on more potent and psychoactive aspects of cannabis. However, it should be noted that when a visiting patient gets approved, they can only purchase over a period of 30 days per application.
If we ever hope to have a medical marijuana program that’s as good as Arkansas’ (or even better, Oklahoma) then we must do everything possible to reach out to our elected representatives and encourage them to consider expanding the Texas Compassionate Use Act to include more debilitating disorders and remove the counterproductive low-THC limit for medicinal cannabis products. While there is still a considerable amount of time before the next legislative session in 2021, we need to make the most of this lull by getting organized, making connections to our legislators, and rallying our communities behind not only better cannabis laws but also the larger issue of criminal justice reform.
