Bill Filed to Strengthen State Law On Abortion Facilities

Abortion, , , , ,

On Wednesday Sen. Dan Sullivan (R – Jonesboro), Rep. Joe Cloud (R – Russellville), and Rep. Robin Lundstrum (R – Springdale) filed S.B. 388 amending Arkansas law concerning abortion facilities.

The bill requires any facility that performs abortions to be licensed by the Arkansas Department of Health as an abortion facility, and it prohibits abortions in hospitals except in cases of medical emergency.

Under current law, a facility does not have to be licensed as an abortion facility unless it performs ten or more abortions in any given month.

That means a clinic could perform up to nine abortions per month — or 108 abortions per year — without being licensed and inspected as an abortion facility.

Arkansas currently has two licensed abortion facilities — both of which are in Little Rock — but it’s possible some abortions are taking place at unlicensed facilities around the state.

S.B. 388 will help ensure that every clinic that performs abortions follows all of Arkansas’ laws concerning abortion facilities. This has the potential to save many women and unborn children from abortion.

Read The Bill Here.

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Arkansas House Passes Good Bill Addressing Marijuana Advertising

Marijuana,

On Tuesday the Arkansas House of Representatives passed H.B. 1353 addressing medical marijuana advertising in Arkansas.

This good bill by Rep. Delia Haak (R – Gentry) and Sen. Cecile Bledsoe (R – Rogers) says that marijuana dispensaries and cultivators cannot use a cross of any color or other symbols commonly associated with the practice of medicine in their advertisements.

Current state law says marijuana dispensaries and cultivators cannot use medical symbols in signs on their property, but it fails to address other types of advertising.

H.B. 1353 closes this loophole in state law.

The bill passed with 78 votes in the Arkansas House; only nine representatives voted against the bill.

The measure now goes to the Arkansas Senate.

See how your state representative voted here.

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Proposal Would Address Marijuana Possession, Transportation, and Use

Legislation, Marijuana,

On Monday Rep. Robin Lundstrum (R – Springdale) and Sen. Cecile Bledsoe (R – Rogers) filed H.B. 1525 concerning the unlawful possession, transportation, and use of medical marijuana in Arkansas.

The bill prohibits a person from being under the influence of marijuana in public or at a marijuana dispensary or marijuana cultivation facility.

It clarifies that it is unlawful for a person to use marijuana by inhalation in a place where marijuana is prohibited by the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment of 2016.

It also imposes penalties for possessing more marijuana than Arkansas’ medical marijuana amendment allows.

And it makes it a crime to transport medical marijuana into Arkansas from another state.

Right now, Arkansas law prohibits marijuana use in public, and it says that a person cannot be intoxicated by marijuana while at a marijuana dispensary or cultivation facility. State law also prohibits smoking of medical in public or if the user is under 21 years of age.

But Arkansas law does not contain penalties for violating some of these medical marijuana laws, and current law may not adequately address all the ways marijuana can be consumed by inhalation.

H.B. 1525’s broader language and penalties could help address these inadequacies in state law.

Time and again healthcare professionals have found a link between marijuana and serious health problems.

A study just published in JAMA Pediatrics found that heavy cannabis use among adolescents and young adults with mood disorders is “associated with an elevated risk of self-harm, overall mortality, and death by unintentional overdose and homicide.”

A 2019 study found that marijuana legalization has been linked to psychosis, suicide, and other substance abuse.

And a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association’s publication JAMA Psychiatry found exposure to marijuana during pregnancy was associated with psychotic behaviors, weaker cognitive abilities, and other problems in children.

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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