Almost 67,000 pounds of medical marijuana have been sold in Arkansas since May 2019.

SHERWOOD, Ark. – From chronic pain to PTSD, veteran health has been a national topic of debate for generations.

But a growing movement has veterans finding relief in plants, switching from pill bottles to buds and easing their pain through cannabis.

According to the National Institutes of Health, veterans are twice as likely as the general population to die from an opioid overdose, a statistic sending many away from pharmacies and into dispensaries in states where medicinal marijuana is legal. 

A proposed amendment to the Arkansas Constitution to legalize recreational marijuana and allow for a number of cannabis businesses proportional to the state's population was filed with the secretary of state's office Thursday morning.

The Arkansas Adult Use and Expungement Marijuana Amendment will be one of at least three adult-use cannabis proposals vying for the 2022 ballot.

A group that failed to get a recreational cannaibs amendment on the ballot four years ago and sued the attorney general over procedural issues hopes to give Arkansas voters a chance to legalize recreational cannabis next year.

Arkansas True Grass, a group of marijuana advocates and volunteers, is gathering signatures for a constitutional amendment that would allow Arkansans aged 21 and over to purchase up to four ounces of marijuana a day and grow up to 12 plants of their own. The group needs 89,151 verified signatures to make the November 2022 ballot. The deadline to submit petitions is July 8, 2022.

Arkansas sees another campaign to potentially legalize cannabis in the state. Advocates hope this spells the end of state-wide prohibition.

A group headed by a former Arkansas lawmaker has joined the charge to reform cannabis policy in the state by organizing a group to campaign for a constitutional amendment to legalize recreational marijuana. Eddie Armstrong, a former Democratic state representative from North Little Rock, is listed as the chair of the organization Responsible Growth Arkansas in a filing with the Arkansas Ethics Commission submitted on October 15.

A federal grant will help fund a study on the medical cannabis program in Arkansas. 

On Oct. 1, the opening of River Valley Relief Cultivation on Old Greenwood Road will give the River Valley its first medical marijuana growing facility. 

Scott Hardin, director of communications for the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration, said Amendment 8, which was passed by voters in 2016 to legalize medical marijuana, limits the number of growers in the state to eight. The state has reached its limit of eight growers.

Fort Smith was approved to grow cannabis in 2020 along with Grady and Hot Springs. They join Pine Bluff, Cotton Plant, Newport, Berryville and White Hall, which were approved in 2018.  

Members of Arkansas' medical marijuana industry at a legislative subcommittee meeting last week aired frustrations with the state contractor used to track cannabis products and sales.

The vice chairwoman of the Arkansas Legislative Council's Medical Marijuana Oversight Subcommittee, Sen. Linda Chesterfield, D-Little Rock, raised the issue on Thursday, saying she had heard concerns about the accuracy of data in the Biotrack system and that the company had not been responsive to providers' needs.

NORTHWEST ARKANSAS, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — An Arkansas organization, True Grass, is gathering signatures to get a recreational marijuana amendment on the 2022 ballot.

The proposed amendment would legalize the production, possession and sale of marijuana for people older than 21. It would also expunge cannabis convictions in the state.

A volunteer with True Grass, Jesse Raphael, said bringing recreational marjuana to the state would be a boost for the economy.

Medical marijuana sales are proving to be icing on the state's revenue cake nearly two years after the first dispensaries opened in Arkansas.

• The Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration reported $330.4 million of statewide medical marijuana sales — more than 48,914 pounds — as of June 3.

• That adds to the state's projected surplus revenue of nearly $1 billion.

• NWA's four dispensaries alone have collectively sold 28.3% of the total volume in that time, more than 13,850 pounds.

Why it matters: Northwest Arkansas has become a key driver of the state's medical marijuana industry and of the sales tax revenue Arkansas collects on each purchase.