Arkansas medical-marijuana business rules raise concerns

Opinions on dispensaries, lottery voiced at LR hearing

The proposed process for awarding licenses to medical-marijuana businesses, restrictions on where such businesses can be located and rules for how they can operate drew criticism at a public hearing Friday.

Access to the drug was a concern for Bruce Thurow, who described himself as a caregiver.

"We should really be giving out free marijuana to the people that actually need it, and that's not going to happen," Thurow said.

He was among about 300 people -- many of them prospective applicants for medical-marijuana dispensary or cultivation licenses or patient registration cards -- who filled an auditorium at the W.H. Bowen School of Law at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock for the three-hour hearing.

[BILL TRACKER: See the status of all marijuana-related bills in Arkansas Legislature]

The Arkansas Medical Marijuana Commission and Alcoholic Beverage Control Board will consider whether to make any changes to the regulations before submitting them to the Arkansas Legislature for approval.

Commission Chairman Ronda Henry-Tillman said many of the concerns raised during the hearing had already been discussed by the commission and addressed in the rules.

"I think the commission wants a safe program," she said. "We want a fair program for all Arkansans."

The Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment, passed by voters in November, legalized medical marijuana in the state and created the commission to administer the issuance of licenses for up to 40 dispensaries and as many as eight cultivation facilities.

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The Alcoholic Beverage Control Board rules govern the operation of the dispensaries and cultivation facilities.

The state Board of Health held a similar hearing last month on its proposed rules, which govern the issuance of patient registration cards and the labeling and testing of the drug.

Wearing green T-shirts with a picture of a marijuana plant and the slogan "Diversity for All!," several speakers said Friday that they want the commission to ensure minority groups will be represented among the dispensary and cultivation center owners and to encourage the businesses to be located in the Delta and other high-poverty areas.

The commission's proposed rules divide the state into eight zones where dispensary licenses will be dispersed and call for the businesses to be distributed equally throughout the state.

The rules don't specify where the cultivation facilities will be but say the commission may consider whether such a facility would "positively impact the economy and diversity of the area in which the facility is to be located."

The constitutional amendment prohibits an individual from having an ownership interest in more than one cultivation facility and dispensary.

Several speakers objected to a provision that calls for dispensary applicants whose submissions meet minimum criteria to enter a lottery to present their plans to the commission. Instead, they argued, the selections should be based on merit only to ensure the dispensaries meet high standards.

Melissa Fults, a medical-marijuana advocate, objected to a proposed fee of $25,000 for dispensaries that want to grow their own marijuana plants.

The fee for dispensaries that don't grow marijuana plants would be $2,500 under the proposed rules.

Fults said few dispensaries would be willing to pay the fee, which would limit patients' access to strains of marijuana geared toward particular ailments that cultivation centers may not grow.

She said, "$25,000 is outrageous, and people will not be able to do it."

Metro on 04/01/2017

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