Third recreational marijuana constitutional amendment is proposed by group for Arkansas November ballot

A third group seeking to legalize marijuana for adult recreational use in Arkansas filed a petition for a proposed constitutional amendment to appear on the ballot in November, providing the group obtains enough signatures on petitions.

The Arkansas Adult Use Cannabis Amendment is backed by the ballot question committee Responsible Growth Arkansas and has been vetted for the past several months by a consortium of dispensary owners and cultivators, committee chairman Eddie Armstrong said in an interview Tuesday.

The sponsors must obtain thousands of signatures on petitions to get the measure on the general election ballot.

Arkansas voters approved Amendment 98, the constitutional change that legalized cannabis for medical use, in 2016, and the first dispensaries in the state opened in 2019.

Under the proposed amendment, the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Division would issue adult use cultivation and dispensary licenses to entities that already hold licenses under Amendment 98 on or before March 7, 2023.

On or before July 5, 2023, the regulatory agency would issue 40 additional adult use dispensary licenses chosen by a lottery. The total number of dispensary licenses would be capped at 120.

The amendment would create two “tiers” of cultivation facility licenses.

“Tier One” licenses would go to the existing cultivation license holders. [Read more at Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette]