Poll: Arkansans on the Fence About Medical Marijuana

The Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment currently has 49 percent support, with 8 percent undecided.

092916 Arkansas Cannabis Flag

Arkansas narrowly missed the opportunity to become the first state in the South to legalize medical marijuana back in 2012 and lost the crown to Louisiana earlier this year. Now the state has another opportunity to vote on medical cannabis and claim silver. 

But only if its voters can decide for which of the two medical legalization bills to vote.

The Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment (Issue 6) and the Arkansas Medical Cannabis Act (Issue 7) are both confirmed to appear on the state’s ballot this November. And while most would think that having two medical marijuana measures on the ballot would split the vote, a recent Talk Business & Politics-Hendrix College poll shows otherwise.

According to the survey, a plurality of voters prefers the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment to the Arkansas Medical Cannabis Act, with 49 percent of respondents saying they will be voting for the former versus 36 percent for the latter.

“Arkansas voters do appear to distinguish between the two medical marijuana proposals, according to our survey,” says Talk Business & Politics’ Roby Brock on the group’s website. “With legal challenges remaining, high-profile opposition, and the possibility of national groups spending money in support of the issue, these proposals may be the most contested on the November ballot.”

Issue 7 allows for home grows for patients who live over 20 miles away from the nearest dispensary, lets municipalities regulate the number of cannabis businesses in their communities, and has a more exhaustive list of qualifying conditions.

Issue 6, on the other hand, does not allow for home grows and sets an initial cap on the number of dispensary licenses at 40 and cultivation licenses at eight. The Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment has the upper hand on one key point: Since it is a state constitutional amendment, lawmakers would not be able to make medical marijuana illegal again without voter approval. The Arkansas Medical Cannabis Act needs a two-thirds supermajority vote in the state Senate and House.

This most recent poll shows that Arkansan voters are more supportive of the more restrictive, but secure medical marijuana measure.

“Our period of polling has a period where there’s been a lot of debate in Arkansas over medical marijuana,” said Jay Barth, professor of political science at Hendrix College during a Talk Business & Politics interview. “And what we’ve seen is that the broad concept, ‘should there be medical marijuana available to patients?’, [there’s] lots of support for it. When you get to the specific proposals, it gets more complicated.”

“While the state Supreme Court will decide whether the campaigns on either or both of the measures proceeds,” he said (three separate challenges to remove the measures from the ballot have found their way to the state's highest court, with one of them having already been dismissed), “it appears like another close call awaits (at least on the amendment) four years after Arkansans’ last consideration of the issue.”

Find out more about Arkansas' ballot measures here.
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