The man who helped design some of* the light displays on bridges across the Arkansas River never thought he could play a role in the medical-marijuana industry.
But the election last month -- when voters approved the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment -- gave Doug Schreiber, who handles lighting systems design and implementation for Curtis Stout Inc. of Little Rock, an opportunity to sell lighting to new clients.
"The old days of the guys just setting the plants up and putting grow lights over them is over," he said.
But before would-be marijuana growers begin needing Schreiber's lights, actions by state government are required.
And how lawmakers -- who can change most of the amendment with a two-thirds vote during next year's session -- modify the law will affect potential patients and the industry.
"Beware of anybody who over-promises at this point in time because nobody really knows much of anything," said David Couch, the Little Rock lawyer who backed the amendment.
The first legislative proposal, filed Wednesday by Rep. Douglas House, R-North Little Rock, delays implementation of the law by 60 days to May 8. Couch said lawmakers got in touch with him before the bill was filed and he saw no problem with the delay.
In an interview, House said he would be organizing medical-marijuana legislation in the House, while Sen. Greg Standridge, R-Russellville, will do the same in the Senate. Before the legislation was approved, both said they were opposed to the ballot measures that sought to legalize medical marijuana.
But House said he respected the will of the people, and his No. 1 priority is to "make sure marijuana gets into the hands of those people who believe they need it." He said "Second is to keep it out of the hands of kids. Third, keep it out of the automobiles. Fourth, keep crime out of it."
House said he has preliminary plans to run an omnibus bill to address "about 102" issues identified with the amendment. Those are areas of confusion, contradiction or a lack of clarity, he said.
For example, the amendment says anyone with a "felony involving violence" cannot be an owner, board member or officer at a dispensary or cultivation facility. But what does "felony involving violence" mean?
"We're going to have to define what that means," House said. "It certainly includes things like murder and manslaughter and armed robbery, but what about burglary or breaking and entering?"
Senate President Pro Tempore Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, said lawmakers haven't formed a consensus on all the issues lawmakers need to address. He said he favors separate bills, filed in different committees, to flesh out what medical-marijuana legalization means for Arkansas.
Additional legislative delays in implementation -- beyond House's bill -- also are possible, he said.
"There's a line, I think, for the members to recognize -- that is, it was voted on by the people," Dismang said. "That vote by the people doesn't take away our responsibility to ensure this gets done properly. Regardless of our feelings on the issue, that should be our focus."
Couch said he didn't expect extensive legislative changes, though he's created the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Association to try to organize support and defend the amendment.
But at least one lawmaker has talked of changing how marijuana tax proceeds are spent, while opponents are promoting extensive changes to the amendment.
The sales tax -- set in the amendment at the same rate as other goods -- is intended to pay for implementing the amendment, supplement general revenue and pay for workforce training. A state estimate during the campaign said there wouldn't be enough funding to pay for implementation and enforcement, but Couch said he expects the amendment to pay for itself.
Sen. Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, said he will propose using revenue from the taxation of marijuana to help pay for his proposed $105 million-a-year state income-tax cut. The taxation of marijuana under the amendment is limited to the state's regular sales tax, and Hester has said he has not decided whether to propose an additional marijuana tax.
He did not return a request for comment Friday.
Couch said he didn't think "anybody has an appetite to be labeled as taxing sick people for an income tax cut."
Jerry Cox, president of Arkansas Family Council and an opponent of the amendment, said he has concerns he hopes lawmakers will address.
They include: where to allow people to use marijuana; whether marijuana candy -- so-called edibles -- should be manufactured and sold; how marijuana advertising should be regulated; what steps counties and cities should be required to take to ban dispensaries and growing facilities; whether to allow people to smoke marijuana -- including those under 18.
"Smoking is not medicine," Cox said. "People voted for so-called medical marijuana and so, I believe in their minds, they were thinking a bottle of pills or maybe some oil or something in an eyedropper -- not marijuana cigarettes, certainly not marijuana candy."
The regular session starts Jan. 9, but deadlines already are approaching for other decision-makers.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson, House Speaker Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia, and Dismang by Wednesday have to appoint five members to the Medical Marijuana Commission created by the amendment.
The commission will administer and regulate the licensing of dispensaries and cultivation facilities. It will allow at least 20 but not more than 40 dispensary licenses, and at least four but not more than eight cultivation facility licenses.
"I know the governor wants to fulfill what Arkansans voted for and that's what we're going to do," said J.R. Davis, a spokesman for the governor. "This is a very big undertaking -- keep that in mind."
"We're essentially creating a mini [Food and Drug Administration] here in the state of Arkansas through some of these regulations."
And two state agencies have begun drafting rules to address their part in implementing the amendment.
"That's where I think most of it will be fleshed out," Couch said.
Likewise, Dismang said: "At the end of the day, what we have to do is make sure we're not writing legislation where rules and regulations should exist."
The Alcoholic Beverage Control Division of the Department of Finance and Administration will inspect the dispensaries where marijuana is sold, and cultivation facilities where it's grown.
Jake Bleed, spokesman for the finance department, said draft rules should be released by next month to comply with the amendment's deadlines.
"If you think about all of the requirements we have to meet, like legislative oversight and Medical Marijuana Commission [approval], we're really looking at early January," he said.
Asked if legislative changes could derail any planned rules, Bleed said, "The amendment certainly leaves open the potential for legislative action, but we have an obligation to carry out the requirements of the amendment, and we're certainly going to do that."
The Department of Health will issue registry identification cards for patients who have any of 18 qualifying conditions as defined in the amendment. Among the permitted conditions are cancer, glaucoma, Tourette's syndrome, Alzheimer's disease and hepatitis C.
Robert Brech, general counsel for the Health Department, released an early draft of the rules in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, along with a summary of the 14-step process by which state agencies promulgate rules.
"Just so you are aware, we haven't completed Step 1 at this point," he said in an email.
The draft rules require that doctors have a "registration from the United States Drug Enforcement Administration to prescribe controlled substances" before recommending marijuana to patients.
They require doctors to submit written certifications to the department for patients requesting identification cards "stating that in the physician's professional opinion ... the qualifying patient has a qualifying medical condition and the potential benefits of the medical use of marijuana would likely outweigh the health risks for the qualifying patient."
The draft rules have blank underlined spaces in which fees for card applications and testing laboratories would be defined.
Detailed labels for marijuana are required under the draft rules, including the concentration of certain chemicals, the strain of the plant and the name of the cultivation facility or dispensary that produced the marijuana.
"Each usable marijuana product must state that it is only for use by a qualifying patient, must be kept away from children, and is not for resale," according to the draft.
While the state bureaucracy does its job, Dismang said lawmakers are keeping an eye on President-elect Donald Trump. Dismang said there's some uncertainty about what the new president will do.
Trump has said he supports medical marijuana. His pick for attorney general, U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., is a marijuana foe.
All marijuana is illegal under federal law, but President Barack Obama's administration declined to enforce that law where states legalized recreational and medical-marijuana programs.
And while the state government implements the amendment, Schreiber, the lighting expert, says he's trying to figure out how to compete with Colorado companies to provide marijuana lighting.
The amendment requires that marijuana be grown in "an enclosed, locked facility." At least four but not more than eight cultivation facility licenses are authorized under the amendment.
Growers will need to replicate the sun -- the temperature, intensity and color over days and months -- to grow marijuana properly.
So Schreiber is looking at automation, arrays of color-changing lights, computer controls and even theatrical lighting equipment to sell to growers -- unless something major changes.
"All I've figured out is there's a lot more questions than answers, and people are starting to think more and more of the extended ramifications for what this could or couldn't do to people in business," he said. "It'll be a wild ride."
SundayMonday on 12/04/2016
*CORRECTION: Several companies have been involved in the addition of LED lighting to Arkansas River bridges in the Little Rock area. Curtis Stout Inc. helped during the concept phase, according to a company representative. The company designed and maintains the lighting on the Two Rivers Pedestrian Bridge. Gildner Maddox LLC and Koontz Electric designed and supplied the fixtures for the Clinton Library Bridge, the Junction Pedestrian Bridge, Main Street Bridge and the re-lighting of the Big Dam Bridge. This article failed to make clear which companies were involved in the bridges’ lighting.