Separate bills filed Monday would prohibit the smoking of medical marijuana and limit the ability of dispensaries to grow plants.
Lawmakers tasked by House and Senate leadership with organizing medical legislation are split over the dispensary legislation.
And Little Rock-based lawyer David Couch, who sponsored the voter-approved Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment, said he opposes both measures.
"Both are against the will of the people and will damage the economic viability of the program," he said.
Late Monday evening, Sens. Greg Standridge, R-Russellville, and Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, filed a bill to prevent dispensaries from growing medical marijuana.
Senate President Pro Tempore Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, tasked the pair with organizing medical marijuana legislation in the Senate, while Rep. Douglas House, R-North Little Rock, was tapped by House Speaker Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia.
House said Monday that he does not believe dispensaries should be prevented from growing marijuana. The amendment allows the dispensaries to grow up to 50 mature plants.
"It's simple economics, if you limit the supply, the price goes up. If the price goes up, people are going to buy it on the street," he said. "They're not going to buy it at the dispensaries."
Irvin and Standridge did not return requests for comment late Monday, but Dismang said the dispensary issue is a point of disagreement between the House and Senate organizers.
"In general, they're working together, but there's going to be some issues that obviously we're not going to agree on," he said. "I wouldn't say there's a big fault line or anything like that."
About 10 minutes before Senate Bill 254 was filed, Rep. Robin Lundstrum, R-Elm Springs, filed House Bill 1400 which would outlaw smoking medical marijuana.
Earlier in the day, she filed House Bill 1392, which would prevent marijuana in food and drink unless it's needed to aid ingestion, and House Bill 1391, which would allow city councils and quorum courts to outlaw medical marijuana facilities. The bill doesn't address other forms of city government.
Under the amendment, cities and counties could outlaw marijuana dispensaries and cultivation facilities with a vote of the people.
Lundstrum did not immediately return a request for comment.
Senate Bill 254 has 14 co-sponsors, including Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Bigalow, who had proposed banning the smoking of medical marijuana in interviews last week.
"No medical professional that I have spoken to, no medical information that I have seen says that smoking marijuana has truly any medicinal benefit whatsoever," he said Monday.
Rapert had filed Senate Bill 238 on Thursday, which would halt implementation of the state medical-marijuana program until 180 days after the federal government changes the law to allow it. Marijuana is illegal under federal law, but more than half the states allow some use of marijuana.
House said smoked marijuana is 50 percent of the market.
"If you want to close down the dispensaries and the cultivators, prohibit smoking," he said.
Rapert said he did not know if prohibiting smoking would have a drastic effect on the marketplace.
"I'm not in the business of trying to make sure that marijuana stays in business," he said. "I'm in the business of trying to protect the people of Arkansas."
Metro on 01/31/2017