A group pushing to place a recreational marijuana amendment on the November ballot is breathing a sigh of relief following an Arkansas Supreme Court ruling allowing them to collect signatures electronically.
“People can go to our website, they can download the special signature page and then they can sign the petition and then they can mail it to us,” said Arkansans for Cannabis Reform Executive Director, Melissa Fults.
Fults said when the pandemic hit it put a dent on their efforts to gather signatures.
“We had just gotten money to hire paid canvassers like two weeks before all of this hit,” she said.
Part of their initiative would allow Arkansans over the age of 21 to purchase marijuana. It would also increase the number of dispensaries to 30 per congressional district, with at least one in each county. Dispensaries would be able to grow a minimum of 200 mature plants and 200 seedlings, versus the current 50 plant limit.
It would also allow for home growth, with up to six mature plants and six seedlings.
Fults said the proposal also includes where the sales tax will go.
“After the program is paid for, 60 percent goes for pre-k and after school programs starting with the most at-risk children, and then the other 40 percent goes to UAMS to run their budget,” she added.
Despite the pandemic, the group will have to turn in around 89,000 signatures by July 3. So far, said Fults, they have collected up to 23,000.
“One thing we’re talking about is next week sending out a letter, we actually have a list of everyone that signed both of the marijuana initiatives in 2016, so what we’re going to try to do is send a letter with a self-addressed stamped envelope a legal-sized signature sheet to all of these people and ask them as soon as you get this, please sign it and return it.”