The latest budget proposals at the Arkansas Legislature include $7.5 million to fund Arkansas’ medical marijuana program.
Medical marijuana sales in Arkansas don’t generate enough tax revenue to fund the program. As a result, the state is millions of dollars in the hole on marijuana.
Watch this video to learn more.
On Monday the pro-life organization Americans United for Life (AUL) published the groundbreaking report Unsafe: America’s Abortion Industry Endangers Women.
The book examines conditions at abortion facilities in all 50 states — including Arkansas.
AUL writes,
Arkansas has some regulatory limitations in effect statewide, and so their response to AUL’s request for information included mostly individual physician records, the majority of which were routine documentation. Clinical inspection reports included citations for discharging patients before the 48-hour waiting period expired, failure to properly clean facilities, and failure to perform accurate drug counts of controlled substances. The record for an abortionist employed at Little Rock Family Planning Services included several citations for over prescribing opioids, including one woman who blamed her mother’s death in 1994 on the abortionist’s over-prescription. The abortionist’s record also included a 2008 DUI which he self-reported to the Arkansas Medical Board, and a patient complaint letter following an adverse event from her 2006 abortion which left her incapable of having children.
AUL’s investigation revealed abortion facilities in Arkansas were among those cited for failing to properly perform or document staff training, failing to “ensure a safe and sanitary environment for their patients,” and failing to properly handle medications.
Abortion is not safe. It kills unborn children, and it carries significant health risks for women.
This latest report simply further illustrates that fact.
Earlier this month the Joint Budget Committee at the state legislature proposed two measures appropriating a total of $7,500,000 to pay for expenses from medical marijuana in Arkansas.
H.B. 1072 budgets $2.5 million for the Medical Marijuana Commission Fund to cover refunds, reimbursements, and contingency expenses.
H.B. 1106 budgets $5 million for the various state agencies responsible for implementing and regulating medical marijuana in Arkansas.
As we have written before, medical marijuana has cost Arkansas taxpayers millions of dollars.
Since May of 2019, the State of Arkansas has garnered approximately $21 million in marijuana tax revenue.
Of that money, only about $13 million has gone to the state to pay for the medical marijuana program’s expenses.
However, the state already has spent over $32 million on medical marijuana.
In Fiscal Year 2018 the Arkansas Legislature appropriated $5 million for the implementation of “medical” marijuana.
In Fiscal Year 2019 they appropriated another $5 million.
In Fiscal Year 2020 they passed two measures appropriating approximately $11.6 million total for the program.
And last year the legislature passed two measures budgeting more than $10.6 million for medical marijuana in 2021.
In other words, despite high marijuana sales, Arkansas taxpayers are still millions of dollars in the hole when it comes to medical marijuana.
