BENTONVILLE, Ark. — New billboards are coming up along I-49 in Northwest Arkansas encouraging drivers to not bring marijuana back to Arkansas from Missouri dispensaries.
In Missouri, recreational marijuana use is allowed while in Arkansas, only medical use is. If someone without a medical card is caught in possession of less than 4 ounces in Arkansas, they could spend up to a year in jail and pay a fine of up to $2,500.
The lower part of the billboards read "paid for by 906 N Bloomington LLC." Scott Hardin, spokesperson for the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Commission, said a dispensary owner recently told the state they were going to place a similar billboard in Northern Arkansas. 5NEWS has not confirmed if the LLC is connected to this.
The state continues to see Missouri dispensaries advertising with billboards in Northern Arkansas, something Arkansas dispensaries could probably never do. The law says Arkansas dispensaries cannot advertise in any form unless they can prove that no more than 30% of their audience is children.
This comes as an Arkansas dispensary filed a lawsuit challenging Arkansas' advertising laws when it comes to medical marijuana dispensaries.
"We're required for the adult use patients to just verify you have a government-issued photo ID that assures that you're 21 years of age," said Mark Hendren, president of Flora Farms, a dispensary that opened in January on the Arkansas-Missouri state line. "You can purchase in our dispensary. What do you do after that? It's up to you. And that's not really our business."
"Whoever this group is, the advertising is actually correct. If you drive there and then cross state lines back in with your Missouri product, that is not something that this program allows," Hardin explained. "Once you have a medical card in Arkansas, you are legally authorized to purchase at an Arkansas dispensary period. You're limited to those 38 dispensaries."
Hendren said he doesn't believe these new billboards will necessarily hurt his business.
"I think whatever people want to communicate, it's up to them," Hendren said. "We follow the law at Flora Farms."
"We have people from the regulators visit our facilities constantly to make sure we're following all the rules, and we think that's good for the consumer, good for everybody," Hendren added.
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