Arkansas medical marijuana group submits triple the required signatures for cure period

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A group aiming to expand medical marijuana access in Arkansas says their latest signature submissions leave them confident their issue can be in the hands of voters.

An amendment proposed by Arkansans for Patient Access would add nurse practitioners, physician’s assistants and pharmacists to the list of who can prescribe medical marijuana cards.

The proposed amendment would also broaden medical qualifications to include whatever a healthcare practitioner feels is debilitating for a patient and could be treated with marijuana. Medical marijuana cards would also expire after three years under the proposal, instead of the current one-year limit.

The group’s cure period required them to submit about 13,000 more signatures, but they’re turning in more than 39,000.

On Aug. 8, the Secretary of State’s office sent a letter to APA saying they had failed to comply with Arkansas law regarding a portion of the signatures.

In a letter sent by the group’s attorney, APA organizers said that “APA disputes that it failed to comply with this statute, and, if necessary, will challenge your position in the appropriate forum.”

“There are 18,000 of those signatures that are under scrutiny for the Supreme Court to be ruling on, besides that we’ve still got 20,000 signatures and we only needed 13,000 so we should be good,” APA Spokesperson Melissa Fults said.

The Secretary of State’s office, while not sharing an official response to that letter, said they’re proceeding with processing what APA has turned in.

They added that intake procedures usually take a few days before signature verification which they have 30 days to complete.

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