The following is a press release from the Family Council Action Committee.
On Thursday the Arkansas Secretary of State announced supporters of the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment would have an additional thirty days to collect petition signatures to place their proposal on the ballot this November.
Family Council Action Committee Executive Director Jerry Cox released a statement, saying, “This is recreational marijuana by another name. This amendment establishes a powerful marijuana industry in Arkansas, and it puts that industry largely beyond the reach of Arkansas’ lawmakers and citizens.”
Cox said the amendment does not adequately regulate marijuana farming, production, and consumption. “If this amendment passes, the Arkansas Constitution will authorize a handful of people to grow and sell marijuana to just about anyone in Arkansas. Any healthy adult claiming a minor ailment like pain or nausea will be able to use marijuana. Children will be able to use marijuana with parental consent. Marijuana won’t be prescribed by a doctor and dispensed through a pharmacy the way actual medicine is. Arkansans will use a note from a doctor to get a marijuana card from the State of Arkansas, letting them buy marijuana at stores in our communities.”
Cox said medical marijuana is rooted in junk science. “Clinical trials are underway right now testing whether the ingredients in the marijuana plant can be extracted or synthesized to produce actual, helpful medicine. The idea that it’s healthy to smoke marijuana, however, is junk science. Nationwide, ophthalmologists, oncologists, HIV specialists, palliative care physicians, public health officials, and other experts largely are not backing marijuana. That’s because marijuana itself is not medicine. The main people saying otherwise are a few celebrity doctors and folks looking to get into the marijuana industry.”
Family Council Action Committee is a conservative 501(c)(4) organization based in Little Rock, Arkansas.
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