Arkansas medical marijuana group continues signature drive despite legal challenges

Arkansans for Patient Access is gathering signatures in the River Valley and Northwest Arkansas to expand medical cannabis access despite legal challenges.

Organizers with Arkansans for Patient Access are still gathering signatures here in the River Valley and Northwest Arkansas.

They need 14,000 signatures by the end of the month and even though the Secretary of State says they did not comply with the law, the initiative is being allowed to continue.

Melissa Fults volunteers for Arkansans for Patient Access, the nonprofit organization behind the Medical Cannabis Amendment of 2024.

Fults says, if approved, it would expand qualifying conditions for prescribing medical marijuana and allow nurse practitioners or physician assistants to write prescriptions.

“If you have a condition that your caregiver feels will benefit from cannabis, they can write a certification for whatever condition you have, like for autism, anxiety, depression,” she said.

Other proposals include allowing patients to grow a limited number of their own plants, expanding medical ID cards from one to three years, ending the $50 processing fee, and making it easier for parents to treat their children.

“There is no actual medication where a parent has to have a federal background check in order to treat their child. So we’ve changed that. We’ve taken that out,” Fults said.