State senator Joshua Bryant (R-Rogers) filed a bill Wednesday that would place a constitutional amendment on the 2024 general election ballot to legalize recreational marijuana in Arkansas.
The bill, SJR13, would legalize marijuana for adults and allow for craft and home grow. The bill does not define craft growing.
The operative language of the bill states:
The purpose of this joint resolution is to amend the Arkansas Constitution to legalize marijuana for the purposes of craft or home growing and adult use by Arkansas residents of a certain age.
The bill follows a failed effort to pass legalization at the polls in 2022. The Arkansas Adult Use Cannabis Amendment, funded by the state cannabis industry, would have legalized marijuana use for adults in Arkansas but would not have allowed home grow. The amendment, criticized as being too favorable to the existing marijuana industry, would have granted recreational dispensary licenses to existing medical marijuana dispensary license holders and would have allowed 12 new small cultivation facilities.
The amendment’s opponents included wealthy Republican financiers, the Arkansas Family Council and Arkansas marijuana advocates David Couch and Melissa Fults. The amendment failed 56.25% to 43.75%.
Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a national anti-legalization organization that worked to defeat the 2022 legalization effort, is already out with a statement today opposed to the bill filed Wednesday.
From Smart Approaches to Marijuana:
Yesterday, Arkansas State Senator J. Bryant introduced a bill that would put legalization recreational marijuana sales and home grow on the ballot next general election if passed.
In 2022, Smart Approaches to Marijuana Action (SAM Action) helped the group Safe and Secure Communities Arkansas defeat Issue 4, the Arkansas ballot initiative that would have legalized recreational marijuana. Despite Arkansans sending a clear message that they do not want legalization, the marijuana industry continues to push for legal weed in the Bear State.
“Arkansans sent a clear message in 2022: they don’t want marijuana in their state. They recognized that legalization is nothing more than a way for rich investors to profit off of an addiction-for-profit model targeted at our kids. There is no appetite for yet another ballot measure trying to legalize marijuana in Arkansas,” said Luke Niforatos, Executive Vice President of SAM Action. “The home grow provisions of this bill are dangerous, too. Legalizing home grow only invites drug cartels into the state. Cartels can cut trafficking costs by producing marijuana in-state, putting the safety of Arkansans at serious risk.
“SJR 13 is an industry bill that, if passed, will hurt Arkansans. The voters of Arkansas already had to vote on the health and safety of their children last year when legalization was on the ballot. They should not have to do so again.”
During the 2022 campaign, Smart Approaches to Marijuana provided support to the opposition, which ran ads that depicted a dystopian future if Arkansas legalized marijuana.
Bryant, the senator who filed the bill, is a Republican from Rogers whose campaign website describes him as a “conservative Republican” and does not mention cannabis. Bryant is a former Marine who went on to work for the Federal Aviation Administration and to work for a construction company. His campaign was endorsed by Arkansas Right to Life, the National Rifle Association and Senator Tom Cotton.
