A.G. Rejects Marijuana Proposals, Term Limits and Ethics Amendment

Current Events,

Yesterday Attorney General Leslie Rutledge’s office rejected two ballot proposals related to marijuana and a third proposal repealing Amendment 94 to the Arkansas Constitution.

Both marijuana proposals were offered by Robert Reed of Dennard. One proposal would legalize marijuana for any purpose statewide.

The other would legalize “hemp” and “medical cannabis.” The proposal distinguishes between hemp and “medical cannabis” by defining hemp as cannabis with relatively low levels of THC. The goal appears to be to legalize hemp for industrial use which we have written about before; however, even cannabis with low levels of THC might be used as a recreational drug, and presumably this measure could allow that.

You can read the A.G.’s opinions rejecting the two marijuana measures here and here.

A proposal by Tom Steele of Little Rock repealing Amendment 94 to the Arkansas Constitution was also rejected.

As you may recall, Amendment 94 was passed by voters last November as Issue 3; Issue 3 extends term limits in Arkansas, and coupled with Issue 1, which voters also passed last November, it gives the Arkansas Legislature a great deal of control over the ethics regulations that govern Arkansas’ elected officials.

Presumably, the goal of “repealing Amendment 94 to the Arkansas Constitution” is to restore Arkansas’ ethics laws and more stringent term limits laws that existed prior to 2014.

You can read the A.G.’s opinion rejecting Mr. Steele’s proposal here. You can read Amendment 94 in its entirety here.

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Number of Deaths Caused by Marijuana Much More than 0

Marijuana

From time-to-time proponents of marijuana legalization throw out some fuzzy statistics claiming no one has ever died from marijuana.

Case-in-point, earlier this month a group in Arkansas advocating major changes in our state’s marijuana laws tweeted the following:

“No one has ever died from cannabis.” Let’s investigate this claim.

Unpacking the Statistics on Alcohol and Marijuana

In the tweet above, Arkansans for Compassionate Care is apparently citing a statistic from the Center for Disease Control on the number of deaths from alcohol every year (88,000, on average). If we read how the CDC arrived at that figure, we see it was by calculating the number of alcohol-related accidents and health problems.

In other words, it isn’t simply that 88,000 people die from blood alcohol poisoning (which some might describe as an “alcohol overdose”) each year. Alcohol is contributing to the deaths of about 88,000 people each year in the form of heart and liver problems, car crashes, and so on.

These are what the CDC calls “alcohol attributable deaths” (you can see a full list of them here). They are deaths cause by something that was a direct effect of alcohol use.

So let’s take a look at marijuana-attributable deaths. Has marijuana really never killed anyone, as so many of its proponents claim?

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Marijuana Businesses “Growing Like a Weed”

Marijuana

Our friends at Focus On The Family in Colorado Springs have put together some compelling information on marijuana and what legalization means for our communities. In case you have any doubts, the news is not good.

In one of their latest emails, Focus writes,

When Colorado legalized recreational marijuana in 2012, a Pandora’s Box of problems was opened.

Washington State, Oregon, Alaska and the District of Columbia have already followed Colorado’s lead. And, similar efforts to legalize the drug are picking up steam in California, Massachusetts, Nevada, Maine—and now the U.S. Senate.

Marijuana leads to a host of social problems and health-related risks, including increases in drug addition, mental illness, homelessness and crime, along with permanent damage to memory, lung function and brain development—especially in teens. Yet, even with this evidence, states are lining up to legalize this drug for recreational use.

On March 10, an historic and sweeping Senate bill was introduced to essentially end the federal ban on marijuana. The bipartisan CARERS Act—short for Compassionate Access, Research Expansion and Respect States—would remove any fear of federal prosecution. While patients and doctors are highlighted as the “compassionate” recipients of this legislation, the biggest benefactor would be the growing marijuana industry.

Meanwhile, another law—the Law of Unintended Consequences—seems to go unnoticed in what Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper calls, “the greatest social experiment of the 21st century.”

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