Group Launches Statewide Campaign Tour Against Marijuana Legalization

Marijuana

The following is a press release from Family Council Action Committee.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — On Tuesday Family Council Action Committee announced plans for a statewide campaign opposing marijuana legalization in Arkansas.

Family Council Action Committee Executive Director Jerry Cox released a statement, saying, “Today we are launching a statewide tour to urge Arkansans to vote against Issue 4. It’s hard to believe an amendment this bad is actually on the ballot in Arkansas. In the next few days our team will hold meetings in twenty-five cities and towns across the state, where we will urge voters not to legalize marijuana in Arkansas. We are also launching a radio campaign against Issue 4, and we plan to equip and mobilize hundreds of churches across Arkansas to oppose the measure.”

Cox said Issue 4’s language is misleading. “The marijuana industry did not write this amendment to help Arkansans. They wrote it to help themselves. If Issue 4 passes, marijuana businesses in Arkansas will be controlled by owners who don’t even live here, and only a fraction of Issue 4’s piddly sales tax will go toward police officers or cancer research. It’s a misleading amendment that repeals and rewrites large parts of the Arkansas Constitution without fully explaining those changes to the voters.”

Cox said he wants Arkansans to understand exactly what Issue 4 would do. “Issue 4 writes an unrestricted marijuana industry into the Arkansas Constitution. City councils and quorum courts will be powerless to regulate it. State lawmakers won’t be able to raise taxes on it. Law enforcement won’t be able to prevent organized crime and drug cartels from purchasing marijuana businesses in Arkansas. We are calling on the people of Arkansas to vote against Issue 4 this November. Our state simply does not need another drug problem.”

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Craighead County to Vote on Reducing Millage for Library that Features Sexually Explicit Children’s Books

Decency, Library, , , ,

This November voters in Craighead County will decide whether to reduce the millage for the public library in Jonesboro.

The Jonesboro public library has been at the center of multiple controversies for nearly a year and a half — such as inappropriately hosting an LGBT Pride display in its children’s library, placing books with sexually-explicit images in its children’s section, and failing to adopt a policy that separates sexual material from children’s content.

Some of these books — such as Gender Queer and l8tr, g8tr — contain explicit images or descriptions of teens engaged in sexual acts.

Library officials have stood by their decision to share sexual material with children — even posting on Facebook that it isn’t the library’s responsibility to protect kids from obscenity.

The Jonesboro Sun reports that this November voters in Craighead County will decide whether or not to reduce the library’s millage from two mills to one mill.

Under Amendment 30 and Amendment 38 to the Arkansas Constitution, voters can circulate petitions to place a measure on the local ballot assessing a form of property tax — or “millage” — to provide funding for city and county libraries.

In Jonesboro’s case, property taxes for the library are currently two mills — or 0.002%. The ballot proposal would reduce the rate to one mill — or 0.001%.

Library officials in Jonesboro have said the tax cut would “devastate” the library and could force it to close, but news reports indicate the library has enjoyed a budget surplus of more than a million dollars for the past three years, and documents from the Craighead County Clerk’s Office show the millage tax provided more than $3.1 million in revenue for the library last year.

Even if the library were not spending public tax dollars on obscene children’s books, reducing the millage in Craighead County arguably would help balance the library’s budget and provide relief for taxpayers.

It’s ridiculous to think that a library isn’t to blame if a child finds pornographic or obscene material in the library’s children’s section.

Public libraries are supposed to be for everyone.

Families should be able to take their children to the library without worrying what their children might see.

Taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize graphic novels that depict explicit images of minors engaged in sexual acts.

Unfortunately, many libraries in Arkansas don’t seem to understand that.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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