How Will This Marijuana PAC Try To Impact Arkansas’ Elections In 2022?

Elections, Marijuana,

Last summer the Arkansas Cannabis Industry Association quietly launched a political action committee in Arkansas — Grow PAC.

The Arkansas Cannabis Industry Association is a trade association for medical marijuana in Arkansas.

Political action committees (PACs) typically work to elect or defeat candidates for public office. PACs often do that by donating to candidates’ campaigns, by running their own independent campaigns for or against candidates, or by issuing public endorsements for certain candidates.

According to paperwork filed with the State of Arkansas, Grow PAC’s officers are employed by Natural State Medicinals, Abaca, and GrowBrite.

Natural State Medicinals is a marijuana cultivator in Arkansas. Abaca describes itself as a cannabis banking and financial platform. GrowBrite appears to be a compliance and risk management specialist that works with marijuana cultivators and dispensaries.

All of this raises a question: How will Grow PAC try to impact Arkansas’ elections in 2022?

According to its website, Grow PAC’s purpose is to support political candidates who “will work to create and maintain a favorable political climate for the cannabis industry” in Arkansas.

The website also indicates that the PAC will provide financial support for candidates who support Arkansas’ marijuana industry.

As the state enters another election season, Arkansans need to be prepared for the marijuana industry to work hard to elect candidates who support marijuana.

Marijuana is a multimillion dollar business, and corporations that buy, sell, and grow marijuana have a lot of money that they can spend campaigning for candidates who align with their values.

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Group Gets $1.75 Million for Campaign to Legalize Recreational Marijuana in Arkansas

Marijuana

Recently five companies each contributed $350,000 toward an effort to place a recreational marijuana measure on Arkansas’ 2022 ballot.

The five donations to the pro-marijuana group Responsible Growth Arkansas totaled $1.75 million to promote recreational marijuana in Arkansas this year.

According to filings with the Arkansas Ethics Commission, the donations came from:

  • Bold Team, LLC, in Cotton Plant, Arkansas
  • Good Day Farms Arkansas, LLC, in Rogers
  • Osage Creek Cultivation, LLC, in Berryville
  • DMCC, LLC in Jonesboro
  • NSMC-OPCO, LLC, in White Hall

In October, Responsible Growth Arkansas filed statements with the Arkansas Ethics Commission indicating it would work to amend the Arkansas Constitution to permit recreational marijuana. Former Arkansas lawmaker Eddie Armstrong reportedly is leading the effort.

According to the Arkansas Secretary of State, Responsible Growth Arkansas has until Friday, July 8, 2022, to collect 89,151 valid petition signatures from registered voters in order to place a recreational marijuana measure on the November ballot.

Researchers have found time and again that marijuana is dangerous.

Scientists have linked marijuana use with violence, psychosis, schizophrenia, depression and suicide.

A study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal last year found adults under age 45 who frequently used marijuana were roughly twice as likely to suffer heart attack as adults who did not use marijuana.

Last spring a study out of California found infants were 35% more likely to die within a year of birth if their mother used marijuana heavily; the study also found that infants were more likely to be born preterm, have a low birth weight, and be small for their gestational age.

A report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that states that legalized commercial marijuana sales saw self-harm rates rise by 46% among men ages 21 to 39.

The list goes on and on.

All of this underscores what we have said for years: Marijuana may be many things, but “harmless” simply is not one of them.

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