Late last week the Arkansas Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit from the Coalition to Preserve Arkansas Values and instead preserved the will of the people by ruling that the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act can appear on the November 2012 ballot. The court's decision confirms that Arkansas will be the first Bible Belt state to give voters the opportunity to legalize medical marijuana.
 
The conservative Coalition filed suit in August seeking to have the medical pot measure blocked outright from the ballot, or at least to waste everyone's time by not allowing the state to count the votes cast. The Coalition's primary argument was that the 384 words used in the Act's ballot question don’t properly inform voters of all the details of the 8,700-word law, such as the obvious fact that legal pot patients in Arkansas could still face retribution by the feds.
 
However, the Act clearly states that marijuana remains illegal under federal law. The Coalition also objected to the ballot question failing to mention that minors can obtain medical pot (but of course to access and use medical marijuana, every minor must have a responsible parent or guardian's permission after being approved for pot use by a physician).  
 
Fortunately, the Arkansas Supreme Court didn't see things the Coalition's way, ruling:
 
“We hold that it is an adequate and fair representation without misleading tendencies or partisan coloring ... Therefore, the act is proper for inclusion on the ballot at the general election on Nov. 6, 2012, and the petition is therefore denied.”
 
In the end, the Coalition's argument was hollow – by the time Election Day rolls around, voters will have had over two months to fully apprise themselves of all the fine print in the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act and decide for themselves if their state should become the first in Southern US to legalize medicinal cannabis.
 
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