Arkansas Group Aims to Get Medical Marijuana on the Ballot

An Arkansas group that favors legalizing medical marijuana has gotten the state’s attorney general to certify their proposal’s ballot language. They will now need 62,507 signatures to get on the November 2012 ballot.

The group, Arkansans for Compassionate Care, hopes that their state will join the 15 other states and the District of Columbia that allow marijuana for medical use. Reuters reports that the group has modeled its legislation on similar laws in Maine and Arizona. The Arkansas law would approve medical marijuana only for specific conditions, such as cancer or AIDS.  The bill would cap the number of medical marijuana dispensaries at 30 and allow cities and counties to ban dispensaries. Sick patients prescribed medical marijuana by a doctor could grow a maximum of six of their own plants at a time, the article reports.