I want to ask everyone to vote "yes" on Issue 5, the medical marijuana issue. My brother passed away five years ago from cancer. One of his friends was kind enough to bring him marijuana to help with his pain, nausea and not wanting to eat. I saw firsthand how much it helped him. It was wonderful.

My mom passed away from cancer two weeks ago. We did not have any way of getting it for her. I watched her waste away day by day. The last week, she was in a lot of pain and was unable to eat anything. I am a God-fearing, law-abiding woman, but if I knew where to get it, I would have, even though I know it is not legal. It broke my heart to watch her go like that, knowing there was something that could have eased it all. Please think about how much it can help people and not the horror stories you hear from naysayers.

I'm begging you all to vote "yes."

Shannon Jones

Alma

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I've got marijuana on my mind. On my mind, mind you, not in my lungs; believe it or not I never inhaled. Not that it wasn't offered. Too scared, I suppose. And a chilled stemmed glass with a submerged pair of cocktail onions was somehow more appealing.

A lot of Arkansans have marijuana on their minds, those who succeeded in placing on the November ballot a referendum on legalizing the weed for medical purposes, and those resolved to defeat the proposal. And the undecided, however many there now remain in these final hours before early voting, and election day, conclude.

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LITTLE ROCK - A company that makes vending machines for dispensing medication says it has sued the Family Council Action Committee and director over the organization's use of its image in a recent news conference against the medical-marijuana proposal on the November ballot.

Medbox, Inc. said Friday that it sued the group and its director, Jerry Cox, for using the company's "trademarked imagery in a derogatory fashion" during the news conference.

Cox stood next to a cardboard cutout of a Medbox machine during the event at the state Capitol on Tuesday in which he criticized the medical-marijuana ballot measure for not mentioning such machines.

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LITTLE ROCK - Supporters of a ballot measure to legalize medical marijuana in Arkansas are enjoying a fundraising advantage over opponents, but have burned through their cash quickly as next week's election approaches.

Arkansans for Compassionate Care reported this week that it raised more than $419,000 in October for its campaign to legalize medical marijuana.

The group spent about $406,000 during the month and had less than $17,000 cash on hand.

The group has raised more than $708,000 overall for its campaign.

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LITTLE ROCK - Dozens of medical professionals from around Arkansas are backing a proposal that would make the state the first in the South to legalize medical marijuana.

Arkansans for Compassionate Care on Thursday released a list of 79 medical professionals from around the state who support the proposed initiated act on next week's ballot.

The measure would allow patients with qualifying conditions to buy marijuana from nonprofit dispensaries with a physician's recommendation.

The group announced the medical professionals' support at a news conference that featured Steve Jenison, chair of the New Mexico Medical Cannabis Advisory Board. Jennison said Arkansas' proposal closely mirrors New Mexico's medical-marijuana law.

A group of doctors last week announced their opposition to the proposed act.

Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana in some form.

[end]

We've all seen the pros and cons of medicinal marijuana, especially the speculation that a "yes" vote would increase use. I haven't seen much commentary from the standpoint that our prisons and county jails are full of folks whose only crime was possessing a little marijuana for medicinal use. I'm not talking about the big-time border-jumping dealers who kill and poison for profit. How much of our state tax money goes to housing prisoners who are incarcerated for having a little marijuana? On a federal level, how much tax money is spent chasing, arresting, prosecuting, incarcerating and housing marijuana users and dealers? How much money would be put back into the federal and state coffers if this helpful plant were legalized? People will always use marijuana, legal or not. Let's pass this bill and let our law enforcement folks go after the dangerous drugs and gangsters who deal them.

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LITTLE ROCK - Passage of a ballot issue that would legalize marijuana for medical use in the state could lead to "marijuana vending machines," an opponent of the proposal claimed Tuesday, a charge the measure's supporters denied.

Jerry Cox, leader of the Family Council Action Committee, said he recently learned that one of the ways marijuana is dispensed to patients in California is through dispensing machines. He questioned whether similar machines would be set up in Arkansas if voters approve the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act, also known as Issue 5.

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I have had rheumatoid arthritis for 30 of my 40 years of life. As you can imagine, my body is ravaged and tortured every moment of every day I live. I have been on any pain pill you can think of, at some point in time. They are very little to no help with the pain. My liver is now showing the symptoms of overuse. My day-to-day life is filled with television watching, most of the time. I sleep about 12 hours a night, because even in sleep, the pain creates problems.

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Even if Arkansas voters should approve of Issue 5, the Medical Marijuana Act, in the Nov. 6 election, therapeutic weed won't be accessible soon. "Issue 5 is not a get-out-of-jail-free card," says Jerry Cox, who heads the Family Council, a coalition of fundamentalist churches who oppose marijuana in the same way they oppose abortion and gay marriage. Regardless of Issue 5, possession of marijuana for any purpose will still be illegal under federal law. (Though that hasn't stopped 17 other states from legalizing medical marijuana, with varying results. Medical marijuana is legal also, through congressional action, in the District of Columbia. Arkansas, generally considered a backward sort of state, would experience a change of image should it become the first Southern state to approve medical marijuana.)

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The legalization of marijuana has made it onto the Arkansas ballot after years of heated debate.

Now known by the signs reading "Vote Yes on Issue 5," the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act has been placed on state ballots for the 2012 Election. The Act is a comprehensive blueprint for establishing and regulating a medical marijuana program in Arkansas, run by the Arkansas Department of Health.

While several Arkansas citizens are still torn on the issue, it wouldn't have made it on the ballot without the advocacy of several men and women across the state.

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In the past month, there have been several pieces that attempted to boil the debate over medical marijuana down to its core components, but for thousands of chronically ill Arkansans, there is no "debate" surrounding medical marijuana. The pain and nausea relief afforded by this plant helps them recover from their terrible symptoms and live comfortably without the lengthy list of harmful side effects that you see on the sides of prescription pill bottles.

Marijuana is currently unregulated and not legally available, but on Nov. 6, the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act will be Issue 5 on your ballot. It offers a better choice - controlled access to a medicine that is proven to be safe and effective, especially in relieving the debilitating, lifelong effects of chronic illness and harsh medical treatments like chemotherapy.

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I'm reminded of the Taliban every time I read an article about the socalled evils of a natural herb any of us could grow in our own garden.

However, if we did, the Feds or local law enforcement could come and take our property and our freedom from us even if it was only being used medicinally instead of the more common recreational use.

I'm from the class of 1965, and I've read and studied the pros and cons for almost 50 years; the pros outweigh the cons a hundred times. The "War on Drugs" (all of them) has been a farce. I believe it's been far worse than Prohibition was, and has been going on far too long. The coming vote on making it less of a crime to use marijuana medicinally will just drag this so-called war on a bit longer.

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Against Issue 5

Issue 5 on the upcoming election ballot deals with "medical" marijuana. Essentially, this measure is a backdoor effort to legalize marijuana in Arkansas; it's so broadly written that anyone who can demonstrate they suffer from "nausea," "muscle spasms" or "chronic pain" can qualify. I think most of us - if we were really bent on doing it - could find a way to prove we suffer from one of those conditions - especially when you consider this law lets any doctor in the nation certify you to use marijuana.

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State Leaders, Doctor Speak Against Medical-Marijuana Ballot Measure

SPRINGDALE - A group of Northwest Arkansas politicians, law enforcement officials and a doctor turned out Friday to oppose a ballot measure to legalize medical marijuana, saying Issue No. 5 is fraught with legal and medical problems.

Led by state Sen. Cecile Bledsoe, R-Rogers, about a dozen leaders joined a Little Rock-based advocacy group in a news conference Friday afternoon urging voters to reject the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act.

If voters approve it Nov. 6, the act would legalize some medical use of marijuana.

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Marijuana Debate Moves UAFS College Crowd

A medical-marijuana debate between college students Wednesday moved a handful of spectators - literally.

The Oxford-style debate at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith allowed for the audience to physically shift sides while speakers made their points.

"I saw people moving at the end," said Spanish major Kalynn Barlow, 18, of Siloam Springs, who was selected to help sway the audience against voting in favor of legalizing medical marijuana in Arkansas. "During the first speeches, people were pretty stagnant and pretty set in where they wanted to be."

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LITTLE ROCK - A group of Arkansas doctors announced opposition to a ballot proposal to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes Wednesday, saying such use lacks scientific validation and could be addictive.

The group sponsoring the proposed Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act identified two Arkansas doctors, one practicing and one retired, who support the measure and maintained many others support it but are unwilling to do so publicly.

The proposal is Issue 5 on the Nov. 6 general election ballot. Early voting began Monday. Speaking to reporters at Baptist Health Medical Center, the opposing doctors - 10 from Little Rock and one from Rogers - - said they have formed a group called the Physician Coalition Against Medical Marijuana to speak out against the measure.

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As Montel Williams waited his turn to speak at a state Capitol rally for medical marijuana, he noticed leading opponents of the proposal, Jerry Cox and Larry Page, were in attendance, and carrying on private conversations while supporters of the act testified to the terrible suffering they and members of their families had endured because they couldn't legally obtain marijuana, the only substance that gave relief. That opponents wouldn't even listen to the other side, Williams found appalling.

He'd never seen such callousness, he said. "Aren't we supposed to be a compassionate nation?"

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Family Council president Jerry Cox opposes the ballot measure to legalize medical marijuana. "It's a family values issue," he said. So, let's talk medicine, marijuana - and, especially, family values.

I began suffering undiagnosed leg pain in childhood. At 17, my doctor's best advice was to take aspirin until my ears started ringing. I married, had two children, and started smoking marijuana when I returned to college in my 20s. To my surprise, the leg pain abated.

I continued to smoke for almost 25 years, roughly a joint a day. As I never smoked in secret, I'm betting I've got a perspective on marijuana and family values that Mr. Cox does not.

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Marijuana Vote About Compassion

Marijuana, the third most popular recreational drug in America behind only alcohol and tobacco, is used by nearly 100 million Americans. According to government surveys, 25 million Americans have smoked marijuana in the past year, and more than 14 million do so regularly.

Marijuana is not addictive. Peer-reviewed articles on the subject demonstrate it is not addictive, and further, not harmful. The LANCET, a British medical journal states, "The smoking of cannabis, even long term, is not harmful to health." Per NORML, "Marijuana is far less dangerous than alcohol or tobacco. Around 50,000 people die each year from alcohol poisoning. Similarly, more than 400,000 deaths each year are attributed to tobacco smoking. By comparison, marijuana is nontoxic and cannot cause death by overdose."

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Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK - A growing percentage of Arkansas voters oppose legalizing marijuana for medical use in the state, results of a new poll show.

In the Talk Business-Hendrix College poll, 54 percent of Arkansas voters said they opposed Issue 5, the proposed Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act that appears on the November general election ballot.

Thirty-eight percent said they supported the measure and 8 percent were undecided.

In July, 47 percent of respondents to a survey on the same question said they supported the measure and 46 percent said they were against it.

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