Arkansas has passed medical marijuana, returns show. The result is a good-luck win for reform, even after an internecine fight between reform advocats put two measures on the ballot.
Once an impenetrable fortress of prohibition, the South is slowly allowing medical marijuana a place at its tailgate. (Which is nice, considering how many SEC football players use the stuff with no seeming ill effect, aside from the hit to their draft position and draconian suspensions when busted.)
And nowhere is friendlier than Arkansas, where a medical marijuana measure in 2012 lost by a relatively close 12 percentage points, 44 percent for to 56 percent against.
This year, there were two medical marijuana measures on the ballot—Issue 6 and Issue 7. The latter of which would have allowed patients to grow their own cannabis, but was removed late last month by the state Supreme Court. That hardly matters now that Arkansas is the new center of medical marijuana in the greater South, with Issue 6 winning over voters.
This makes Arkansas the 28th state to allow medical marijuana, including tonight’s winners Florida and North Dakota,officially putting the U.S. past the halfway mark—at least in the number of states. More than half the country’s residents had cannabis access a while ago.
As nearly everywhere else, the pro campaign enjoyed a large advantage in fundraising, $1.3 million in support to $207,000 against.
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