Medical Marijuana was voted in by the residents of Arkansas as a constitutional amendment in the 2016 election. Since then the biggest questions about the program have been related to who can be approved, how to do it, and when does the whole thing starts.
I'm glad to say that I have gone through the entire process, and it isn't as difficult as many may think.
Step 1: Talk to your doctor.
This is by far the most crucial step in the process. The Arkansas Department of Health has a form that your doctor must complete (pictured below), confirming that you do indeed have a qualifying condition, of which there are 18 in the current amendment. I think the biggest worry some may have is that they are very curious if marijuana can help treat their conditions, but may not want to bring it up due to the stigma around cannabis that is perpetuated by people like Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The thing to remember here is that this your your doctor, and while the form your doctor must complete doesn't offer advice on marijuana usage or dosing, many health care professionals are pretty open about this. The biggest thing is to talk to your doctor about medical marijuana if you have a qualifying condition. My doctor and I have had several discussions about responsible usage to manage my PTSD, and he was happy to sign my certification form.
Step 2: Complete the Application Process
Once my doctor signed off I went online to the Arkansas Department of Health's medical marijuana application system at https://ammsys.adh.arkansas.gov/. The requirements are a signed doctor's certification that you have a qualifying condition, a completed application for a medical marijuana registry card, and a copy of your state issued ID. I filled out my application, scanned my application, certification form, and took a picture of my ID with my phone, then submitted the package, along with my $50 fee, with no idea when I would hear anything back.
Step 3: Wait
Once you have submitted your application through the ADH system, the doctors and nurses staffed to review the applications and send out notices to prospective patients. If you are approved, as I was, you will receive something like this in the mail:
(photo of the actual letter I received)I submitted my application a couple of days prior to the printed date on the letter (July 19th, 2017), then promptly left for vacation. It wasn't until I returned that I saw my approval letter. I will admit that I was a rather happy person.
Medical Marijuana is expected to be available in Arkansas as early as the end of this year. The ADH will not be sending out registry ID cards until approximately 1 month before dispensaries open. This makes sense, as product is not available yet, and this prevents you from having a registry ID card, for which there is a renewal fee, six months or so prior to available product, thereby wasting half the yearly registry ID life.
There are groups moving forward with license applications for cultivation facilities, along with dispensaries in my area. Some areas of Arkansas are still held hostage by full blow Reefer Madness, insisting that medical marijuana is going to tear down communities and increase crime and violent behavior. I am lucky to live in an area of the Natural State that has progressive viewpoints when it comes to marijuana policy.
I'm currently having my holiday in Amsterdam.. It's amazing here.. Need more country that legalize marijuana..!!
My "Natural Medicine for The Natural State" t-shirt is one of my most prized possessions. Unfortunately, I moved just before the act got passed. To a prohibition state, no less.
Hopefully we will see a bigger shift now that over half the country has some type of legal marijuana policy in place, be it medicinal or recreational. I understand your feelings about the shirt. I still have a few issue 7 handouts somewhere. Even though 6 passed instead of 7, the handouts for 7 still represent a big change in this state.
I have heard this bill only allows home cultivation if you live beyond a certain distance from a dispensary. Is this true?
As far as I know there is no home cultivation included in this amendment. Issue 7, the bill that was disqualified by the AR supreme court after voting had already begun, had a home grow option. According to David Couch, the lawyer that wrote Issue 6, the removed the home grow option because he firmly believe this is what made previous efforts to fail. I don't know if that would have made it fail, but Issue 6 did pass. But no home grow.
The way medical marijuana and recreational marijuana was passed in Colorado was because they said the taxes collected would help fund the schools.
There's about a 25% tax collected on marijuana sales. That money is supposed to help underfunded school districts and park and recreation District.
The taxes on the AR medical marijuana program are supposed to be put back into the program to pay for its administration. There is speculation that recreational will pass in the next election, and, if it does, i'm very curious to see what happens with the generated tax revenue.
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I hope India will make it legal man! America is way out of my reach, lol! Anyways do check on my profile! I write on India tourism and philosophy and so on! You may like my recent post on how you should laugh at yourself, lol https://steemit.com/life/@alexkoshy/why-you-should-laugh-at-yourself-a-self-awareness-series, you should too! Cheers !
Herbal is the real life