A proposal at the Arkansas Legislature would put marijuana legalization on the 2024 ballot.
S.J.R. 13 by Sen. Joshua Bryant (R – Rogers) would “legalize marijuana for the purposes of craft or home growing and adult use by Arkansas residents of a certain age.”
The proposal is a “shell” amendment right now — meaning it tells what the amendment would do, but has not been fleshed out with specific language amending the Arkansas Constitution.
Arkansans soundly rejected a proposal to legalize marijuana last November, and Family Council strongly opposes marijuana legalization because of the harm that marijuana does to families.
News outlets report that lawmakers in Oregon are considering legislation that would increase the penalties for illegal marijuana production.
Oregon was among the first states to legalize marijuana. At the time, many believed legalization would eliminate the black market and reduce drug crimes. Instead the opposite happened.
Oregon has been inundated by industrial scale marijuana cultivation sites operated illegally by organized crime and drug cartels.
Some of these marijuana operations are tied to labor trafficking and violent crime.
Authorities in Oregon reportedly have seized 105 tons of illicit marijuana this year alone.
Oregon isn’t the only state that has had problems as a result of marijuana legalization. California created a legal framework for growing and selling marijuana in order to weaken drug cartels’ power in the state, but instead their illegal marijuana farms have grown.
It’s worth pointing out that if Arkansas had passed Issue 4 last month, our marijuana laws arguably would be more lax than Oregon’s and California’s in many ways.
Contrary to popular belief, legalization does not decrease drug-related crime, and it does not alleviate drug abuse. If anything, it seems to make those problems worse.
Above: Jerry Cox joins other leaders at a press conference opposing Issue 4 on November 7. Arkansans overwhelmingly rejected the amendment on Election Day despite millions of dollars spent on the campaign to pass it.
Yesterday the group Responsible Growth Arkansas filed a state ethics report showing the organization spent a total of $14,239,037.28 on its effort to pass marijuana amendment Issue 4.
Issue 4 would have legalized marijuana in Arkansas, but voters rejected the proposed constitutional amendment last month.
This was a true “David and Goliath” fight — and David won.
The campaign against Issue 4 had only a fraction of the money that the marijuana industry had, but it was defeated by a broad coalition of churches, business groups, elected officials, and citizens who knew that Issue 4 would be bad for Arkansas.
We couldn’t have defeated Issue 4 without people like my good friend former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, Governor Asa Hutchinson, Lieutenant Governor Tim Griffin, U.S. Senators Boozman and Cotton, U.S. Congressmen Rick Crawford, French Hill, and Bruce Westerman, attorney David Couch, marijuana advocate Melissa Fults, the Arkansas Baptist State Convention, dozens of state lawmakers, Arkansas Farm Bureau, the Arkansas Trucking Association, the Arkansas Chamber of Commerce, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, Focus on the Family, the Arkansas Faith and Ethics Council, the Republican Party of Arkansas, the Arkansas State Lodge Fraternal Order of Police, and many, many others.
Every one of them brought something unique to the fight against Issue 4. We all did our part, and voters soundly rejected Issue 4 as a result.
Going forward, the marijuana businesses who backed Issue 4 should think twice before trying to legalize marijuana in our state. Voters clearly don’t want a measure like Issue 4 in the Arkansas Constitution.
