ROGERS, Ark. — A lawsuit has been filed by Arkansas dispensary Good Day Farm against the state, challenging its advertising restrictions when it comes to medical marijuana.
The suit has sparked discussion among Arkansas dispensaries who claim the restrictions to advertisement is hurting business. A hearing in the suit is set for May.
"Dispensaries and cultivation facilities in the state can advertise, but it's limited," said Scott Hardin, spokesperson for the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Commission. "Let's say a dispensary wanted to run a billboard, that dispensary would have to prove to the state that children are not seeing that consistently and that children don't comprise a significant portion of that audience."
The law says a dispensary would have to prove that a television, radio, print media, or internet advertisement's audience is less than 30% of people under the age of 18. With a billboard, Hardin said that would be nearly impossible.
Adding insult to injury, dispensaries across the border in Missouri are able to advertise in Arkansas, which some sellers in the Natural State claim takes customers, and their money, away.
"Our authority and oversight is specific to Arkansas dispensaries, those 38 dispensaries that are licensed here. We do not have control of those dispensaries in Missouri," Hardin said.
This is why in Northern Arkansas, there's been an increase in billboards for out of state dispensaries, specifically Missouri locations.
"There is very little advertising that we are even allowed to do. So it just gets in really dicey water there," said Samantha Arivett, assistant manager at The ReLeaf Center, an Arkansas dispensary.
"We do have to be creative. But we could never, for example, take out a billboard," said Mandi Strickland, CEO of The Source, when asked about how the dispensary advertises currently. "It seems kind of detrimental to our own culture and environment that we're building here in Arkansas."
Recreational use is legal in Missouri. While only medical use is legal in Arkansas, Strickland said having billboards on a busy highway like I-49 could be intriguing to some.
"I, as an Arkansas dispensary, can’t advertise with a billboard? Fine. But why would you let someone from Missouri do it," Strickland asked. "That advertising confuses people; it makes them not know that we exist."
Watch 5NEWS on YouTube.
Download the 5NEWS app on your smartphone:
Stream 5NEWS 24/7 on the 5+ app: How to watch the 5+ app on your streaming device
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email KFSMDigitalTeam@tegna.com and detail which story you're referring to.