Arkansas Approves 5 Medical Marijuana Facilities
Tags: Marijuana, Arkansas

All 5 approved medical marijuana cultivation facilities in Arkansas are now under construction. In 2016, Arkansas voted to approve a constitutional amendment legalizing medical marijuana for those with certain medical conditions. The 5 medical marijuana facilities approved and ready to farm are Delta Medical Cannabis Co. in Newport, Natural State Wellness Enterprises in Newport, Natural State Medicinals Cultivation between Redfield and White Hall, Osage Creek Cultivation near Berryville, and the BOLD Team in Cotton Plant.

They broke ground on Tuesday, Jan. 22. The BOLD Team was the first to start growing marijuana after being approved on January 11th.

“Cultivation is now underway and we are very excited to begin meeting the medical needs of Arkansas patients. We expect to have medical marijuana available to dispensaries in April,” BOLD included in a news release. They intend to produce 20–25 strands of marijuana.

32 facilities hope to follow in these 5 companies footsteps and be permitted to start planting marijuana. Companies were supposedly given a letter of “Intent to Award a License” earlier this month.

Natural State Medicinals Cultivation has gotten itself into potential legal trouble. Robert DeBin, co-owner, claimed he’d been a resident for the past seven years in an application for a growing permit, according to an Arkansas Alcoholic Beverage Control Enforcement Division violation report. The issue is that DeBin made a claimed five months before making the application in Arkansas that he was also a Colorado resident in an application for an occupational license in Colorado’s marijuana program. This means Natural State Medicinals Cultivation could be fined up to $5,000, have its license suspended or have its license revoked as a result of making “false material statements” to the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Commission.

The process to truly being able to buy medicinal marijuana continues to be a long one as potential dispensaries are having to fight to get approved. Representatives from Public Consulting Group (PCG), a third party firm, was asked to review 198 dispensary applications. It is speculated that some scorers were giving the same score over and over regardless of the location of the different dispensaries.

In Arkansas, it is not legal to bring legal medical marijuana across state lines into Arkansas. You will have to wait until Arkansas’ medical cannabis is in local dispensaries. There are some dispensaries in neighboring states that allow out-of-state card holder to buy from them, but you will not be able to bring the cannabis back to Arkansas. This confusion came from the fact that medical cannabis cards were allowed earlier than the Arkansas medical cannabis cultivation facilities were open. There was speculation that because you had a card, that meant a state like Oklahoma would benefit from Arkansas before the plants were open. That is not the case, cardholders will need to wait until Arkansas has its own cannabis in its dispensaries.

Another bill for medical marijuana reform is also underway.

House Bill 1150, by Rep. Doug House could increase the number of qualifications for someone to get a medical cannabis card from 18 to 57. He claims the change is to keep doctors or patients from lying to get their card. Though many conditions are added to qualifying patients, glaucoma is proposed to be taken off the list.

Soon enough you will be able to get your medical marijuana card in Arkansas.