A 77-year-old retired U.S. Army officer who is pushing an initiative to repeal state laws banning the production, distribution and sale of marijuana was arrested late last week after authorities say she accepted the delivery of 2 pounds of the substance at her Van Buren County home.
A formal charge of possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver is expected to be filed today against Marjorie LeClair of Shirley, Prosecuting Attorney Cody Hiland said Monday.
She had been held in the Van Buren County jail since her arrest Friday, but Hiland said she was “in the process” of being released on bond Monday.
A common parcel service that Hiland declined to identify “intercepted” a package intended for delivery to Le-Clair’s home address that it deemed “suspicious” and alerted authorities. After obtaining a search warrant, they found 2 pounds of “high-grade, high quality marijuana,” Hiland said.
LeClair was arrested when she accepted delivery of the package, he said.
Members of the Conway Police Department, the Van Buren County sheriff’s office and the 20th Judicial District Drug Task Force participated in the investigation, Hiland said.
Attorney General Dustin McDaniel has rejected Le-Clair’s proposed constitutional amendment, called Ban Prohibition of Cannabis, six times. The latest rejection came last month.
McDaniel cited ambiguities in the text of the proposal, which would also ban the Legislature from passing laws prohibiting or limiting the production, distribution or sale of the drug, in rejecting the measure.
McDaniel said in a letter to LeClair, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, that his office previously rejected the measure in opinions dated from July through October and that some of the same issues remained.
McDaniel wrote, quoting a previous opinion, that “the text of your measure is ambiguous in that it appears merely to assume, without ever declaring outright, that current laws prohibiting the sale of cannabis are repealed” and encouraged LeClair to make changes to the proposal for clarity.
At the time of the latest rejection, LeClair said that she was disappointed that the measure was not approved but that she planned to resubmit the proposal.
LeClair’s initiative is separate from two proposed initiated acts that would allow the medicinal use of marijuana.
Melissa Fults, campaign director for the Arkansas Medical Cannabis Act proposed by Arkansans for Compassionate Care, said in an interview Monday evening that LeClair has had no involvement in that campaign.
Arkansas, Pages 10 on 12/17/2013