Recreational marijuana is not currently legal in Arkansas. But medical marijuana is another story. Like many states, fears of being left behind abound where medical marijuana is not legitimate, as states lose out doubly. First, they lose out in direct taxes associated with marijuana. Secondly, they lose out on tourism, as people do not go to the state and people leave it to go to marijuana friendly locations. In November 2016, medical marijuana was voted in for Arkansas.
To provide some statistics on former marijuana related crime, in 2012 there were over 5,700 marijuana arrests in Arkansas. Of those arrests, over 90% were for marijuana possession. During the same year, 91% of all reported burglaries, including home invasions, and over 90% of all motor vehicle thefts went unsolved. It is doubtless a better use of police resources to concentrate on fake crimes that harm people instead of crimes invented by legislature. If you are caught in Arkansas without a medical card with less than four ounces, you would potentially face a misdemeanor charge that carries up to a year in jail and fines as high as $2,500. Medical marijuana is still an illegal drug at the federal level and if the government decide to crack down on marijuana they have their own set of rules concerning the growth and distribution of a substance that is held to be in the same class as heroin and cocaine.
Marijuana Physicians in Arkansas
With the recent legalization, there has been an inevitable increase in the number of medical marijuana physicians popping up all over Arkansas. The reasons for this are obvious. First, people want marijuana and doctors will lose patients. Second is that it results in increased revenue from an increased number of patients. People who do not regularly go to doctors will now go in order to get a recommendation for medical marijuana. And lastly there are a number of doctors who are genuinely aware of the benefits of medical marijuana and how the plant can actually save lives and alleviate suffering. Medical marijuana has been successfully linked with the treatment of multiple illness, including glaucoma, insomnia, chronic pain, Parkinson’s, Chron’s Disease, Multiple Sclerosis and more. If cannabis was not scientifically proven to help treat these illnesses they would not be on the list of qualifying conditions to get a medical marijuana card in many different states.
One such doctor from Arkansas is Dr. Tammy Post, who has certified over a hundred patients in the past two months, nearly 20% of all medical marijuana approved individuals in Arkansas. “I was one of those doctors that thought marijuana was all the myths we believed about a gateway drug,”Dr Post was quoted as saying “I believed it to be illicit and dangerous, like ecstasy and heroin and cocaine”. But after doing months of research into the matter and becoming convinced of the myriad of benefits of marijuana she is now a medical marijuana expert and is convinced that marijuana is the way forward to treat a number ofhealth-related conditions. She read mounds of scientific literature on PubMed and discovered the scientifically proven benefits of marijuana along with not one single study that alluded to negative effects.
There are currently 16 Arkansas medical board licenses physicians who are also required to have a pharmaceutical prescription authority. But this number is set to grow as more and more patients flock to these doctors. In order to obtain a medical marijuana card, like in most other States, patients have to be over the age of 21 and have a qualifying medical condition. These qualifying medical conditions include cancer, Alzheimer’s, severe arthritis, fibromyalgia, glaucoma, intractable pain or seizures. Unlike most other states, in Arkansas, the patients are subjected to a physical. The screening includes a urine tox screen to ensure that the patients are not merely addicts, blood pressure, pulse, weight, kidney and liver functioning. After the physician signs the paperwork, the medical patient can then submit their application to the Arkansas department of health. It is an important legal distinction that the doctor is only giving a recommendation for a medical marijuana card, and does not have the authority to prescribe marijuana directly, as this is illegal.
Arkansas Marijuana Laws
As per Arkansas law, there will be cultivation facilities and 32 cannabis dispensaries, regulated by the Arkansas medical marijuana commission. The process of actually getting marijuana froma dispensary is very much like going to the pharmacy. You have a certain condition and dispensaries will then give out the marijuana, but the amount and type is determined at the dispensary. Dispensaries are required to have a licensed pharmacist at hand to recommended the appropriate medical compounds. While medical marijuana is a huge boon socially and economically, many are attached to the fun of choosing their own strain and type of marijuana for the stone and quality that they are looking for. What is certain is that the number of medical marijuana physicians cropping up in Arkansas is on the rise. It is great to see individual doctors doing their research into the benefits of marijuana and recommending it to patients. More and more physicians are getting on board and coming to realize the many benefits that cannabis has to offer all people.
