High number of applicants for Arkansas medical marijuana
Posted by Sagar Satapathy on September 20, 2017.
Ahead of the deadline to submit applications of Arkansas’s medical marijuana, hundreds of applicants gathered to submit their dispensary and cultivation application fee.
The applicants, around 300 in number, flooded the state office building with thousands of paperwork and thousands of dollars as application fees. The deadline for submission was 4.30 PM on Monday.
Around 300 applications were received in total, with 200 flooding on Monday itself. The applicants had to wait for hours as the number exceeded the clerks available to review the submitted applications. While 100 applications sought permission to grow medical pot, the rest applied for getting permission to distribute.
The applications,which are 1000-page long on an average, will next be reviewed by the state’s Medical Marijuana Commission. Up to five cultivators and 32 distributors will be finalized after reviewing the application. The dispensaries will be equally divided among eight regions in the State.
The cultivators had to pay $15,000 application fees while the distributors have paid $7.500. The application which will be rejected will be get a half-refund. The Department of Health, Arkansas has identified and approved 1200 patients and will begin distributing the patient cards a month before the dispensaries begin selling medical cannabis.
Last year, Arkansas had approved the permission for legalizing medical cannabis for patients with certain medical conditions. Though there is no clarity on when the dispensaries will start rolling out medical marijuana, representatives hope medical pot will start selling from January next year.
Meanwhile, the Family Council Action Committee, which campaigned against the pot amendment last year, is likely to assist local communities to stall the opening of marijuana cultivation and dispensaries. The Council is planning to hold petition drives, involving citizens of at least three countries.
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