Pubdate: Wed, 07 Aug 2013
Source: Sentinel-Record, The (AR)
Copyright: 2013 The Associated Press
Contact:  http://www.hotsr.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1539
Author: Jeannie Nuss, The Associated Press

AG APPROVES BALLOT NAME FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA PROPOSAL

LITTLE ROCK - A proposal to legalize medical marijuana in Arkansas is 
one step closer to going before voters next year after the state's 
top lawyer approved a request Tuesday to certify the measure's 
popular name and ballot title.

The proposal from Arkansans for Responsible Medicine would allow 
patients with qualifying conditions to purchase marijuana from 
nonprofit dispensaries with a doctor's recommendation. However, 
unlike a similar measure that narrowly failed in the November 2012 
general election, the revised proposal would not allow certain 
patients to grow their own marijuana.

"The biggest glaring difference between this one and the one that was 
( there) last time around was ' Grow your own,"' the group's legal 
counsel, David Couch, said.

That's also a big difference between the proposal that Attorney 
General Dustin McDaniel certified and another one that he rejected on Tuesday.

McDaniel cited ambiguities in rejecting a request to certify the 
popular name and ballot lot title of a separate proposal from another 
organization called Arkansans for Compassionate Care 2014. That 
group's spokeswoman, Shannon Steece, said the organization will 
address McDaniel's concerns and resubmit a similar plan, although 
members might have to change the popular name.

Both medical marijuana-related measures that McDaniel addressed in 
opinions on Tuesday are called "The Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act."

For now, Arkansans for Responsible Medicine can start gathering the 
signatures they'll need to qualify for a spot on the 2014 ballot. 
They need 62,507 to be eligible, according to the Secretary of State's Office.

"We've been talking with several paid canvassing firms, and we're 
going to make a decision on which one to hire and start collecting 
signatures," Couch said.

Meanwhile, Steece said her group will fix what McDaniel said were 
several ambiguities in the proposal. Those issues include a phrase in 
the definition of marijuana that McDaniel says wasn't clear enough.

"They're basically the equivalent of dotting our I's and crossing our 
T's," Steece said.
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