Medical Marijuana Update

The Arkansas medical marijuana expansion initiative gets thrown off the ballot, Kansas cops are -- gasp! -- not for medical marijuana, and more.

Arkansas Supreme Court Throws Out Medical Marijuana Expansion Initiative. Although it will appear on the ballot, votes for and against the Issue 3 medical marijuana initiative will not be counted after the state Supreme Court on Monday ruled 4-3 that the initiative's popular name and ballot title are insufficient.

"The ballot title misleads voters because it omits language stating that the proposed amendment would repeal the General Assembly's authority to amend Amendment 98 (i.e., omits material information). The proposed amendment alters or amends Amendment 98 in at least twenty different ways," the opinion reads. Amendment 98 is the state's existing medical marijuana law.

The high court also opined that a provision of the initiative that would have legalized up to an ounce of marijuana for all adults -- not just registered patients -- if the drug were legalized at the federal level made the initiative's popular name, which only mentions medical marijuana, misleading.

The measure would have enlarged a 2016 medical marijuana initiative approved by the voters. It would have expanded the range of healthcare professionals who could recommend medical marijuana, expanded the definition of qualifying conditions, made medical marijuana ID cards good for three years, allowed reciprocity for out-of-state cardholders, and allowed patients to grow their own medicine -- up to 14 plants, seven of which could be mature.

Arkansans for Patient Access, the organization that sponsored the initiative, decried Monday's decision.

"This is a setback for the growth and improvement of our existing program, but it will not be the last attempt to ease the barriers Arkansas's medical patients encounter," the group said in a statement. "We will continue our fight to eliminate hurdles to access and lower costs. Patients across Arkansas have made it clear they want to build on the existing foundation; unfortunately, the anti-marijuana politicians have ignored their call. The people rule, our state motto, does not ring true today."

Kansas

Kansas Usual Suspects Oppose Medical Marijuana Even as Poll Shows Majority Want Legal Weed. Law enforcement groups on Tuesday warned against legalizing marijuana in the state -- one of only three that make no allowance for any form of medicinal cannabis -- saying that it would lead to a lawless state where opioid overdoses jump and cartels roam the streets. This is even as a new poll shows that a majority of Kansans want not only medical marijuana but all-out marijuana legalization.

"You drive by Blackwell, Oklahoma, and you get hit with that odor," Kechi Chief of Police Braden Moore told lawmakers. "That's a quality of life thing… I don't want that in my home state, too."

"After 43 years in law enforcement," said Bel Aire Police Chief Darrell Atteberry, legislative committee chair with the Kansas Association of Chiefs of Police. "And all the bills that I've read… I see this as a train wreck. I mean, whether it's medical marijuana (or) recreational -- it's going to be a train wreck for law enforcement."

Atteberry also warned that allowing medical marijuana would open up a slippery slope leading to marijuana legalization: "We need to stay away from that as far as we can," he said.

Among the dire consequences of allowing medical marijuana, law enforcement officials warned, were marijuana legalization, possible marijuana-caused psychoses and the risk of veterans with PTSD committing suicide, cartels coming into the state, an increase in marijuana-related hospital visits, making the current generation of drug-sniffing dogs obsolete, and the necessity of hiring more cops to enforce any future laws.

But the cops -- and Republican legislative majorities -- appear increasingly out of step with the sensibilities of Kansans. A recent Kansas Speaks poll has support for marijuana legalization -- not just medical marijuana -- at 67 percent.

Utah

Utah Poll Has Half of Voters Ready to Legalize Marijuana, Supermajority for Medical Marijuana. A new poll from Noble Predictive Insights and commissioned by the Utah Patients Coalition has 50 of state voters in favor of adult-use marijuana legalization. At the same time, another 38 percent supported medical marijuana only, and a meager nine percent believed marijuana should remain illegal for any purpose. Three percent were "not sure."

Some 60 percent of voters under 35 supported full legalization, as did 49 percent of the 35-to-54-year-olds, but only 29 percent of those 55 and older did.

"We did this just to see where we were," said Desiree Hennessy, the executive director of the Utah Patients Coalition. "We're not even just talking patients. We're talking Utahns who are up for a recreational or adult-use market in Utah," Hennessy said. "That is surprising, but it's not surprising after you've watched what's happened with the program."

Voters approved a medical marijuana program in 2018, only to see the state legislature override it and create its own, highly-regulated program.

"The question then becomes, why are we seeing so many Utah license plates in dispensaries out of state? Why are -- by the Department of Health's own data -- why are we still seeing about 60% of even medical cannabis patients shopping on the illicit market or out of state? That comes down to cost almost every single time," Hennessy said.

Adult use marijuana is legal in the neighboring states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico.

"We have been suspecting that this has been slowly increasing over the years and with this new poll, we show that 50% of Utahns now support adult-use or recreational market," Hennessey said. "While Utah Patients Coalition doesn't feel like that's the next best step for Utah, what it would do is it would drive down cost."