Arkansas Medical Marijuana Supporters Focus On November Ballot

Arkansasans advocating for medical marijuana legalization in 2016 are confident that the bill will pass this November. Recent polls show that 87 percent of Americans support medical marijuana use. Supporters and the opposition are ready for a big showdown in November.

Polls completed by CBS News say that Americans’ attitudes toward marijuana is more favorable than before. More than half the country supports fully legalized marijuana use, 5 News reports. Roughly 85,000 signatures of support are required, and so far, 10,000 have been collected in a period of only 10 days. The deadline to collect signatures is July 8^th.

Family Council President, Jerry Cox says, “It’s frustrating that some people think marijuana is medicine. People can see now what the future would look like in Arkansas if we start down this road, and it’s my hope that people will look at the mistakes made in other states and that we won’t make the same mistake here in Arkansas. I thin, in some of these states, people just rolled over and said, ‘hey, it’s inevitable, let’s just go with it’. I think the opposition that they will encounter here in Arkansas may be unprecedented when it’s all said and done.”

Author of the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment and attorney, David Couch, said, “This is a democracy and there are way over 50 percent of the people in the state of Arkansas that support medical marijuana now.”

Couch went on to say, “People in the state of Arkansas, while they’re compassionate, they want it to be a little bit strict and regulated so if you’re going to say marijuana is a medicine, then they want you to treat marijuana like a medicine. People get it, I mean if you treat it as medicine and treat it as compassionate, Arkansas is not really a red state or a blue state, it’s a populous state and we do the right thing, and we’ll vote for this, it will pass.”