LITTLE ROCK (KFSM) – Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge rejected a popular name and ballot title on Thursday (July 2) that aimed to legalize industrial hemp and medical cannabis.
The ballot initiative was called “The Arkansas Industrial Hemp and Medical Cannabis Amendment.”
Rutledge said she rejected the ballot initiative due to “ambiguities in the text of [the] proposed measure.”
“It is my conclusion that I must reject your proposed popular name and ballot title due to ambiguities in the text of your proposed measure,” Rutledge said in a letter to Robert L. Reed, sponsor of the ballot initiative.
In her letter, Rutledge referenced the three following ambiguities:
- The proposal refers to “industrial” hemp and “medical” cannabis without limiting those substances’ uses to industry and medicine.
- Confusion regarding what power the ballot initiative assigns to the Legislature in regards to regulation of the “industrial” hemp and “medical” cannabis.
- Obscure language and syntax errors in relation to how the initiative would amend the Arkansas Constitution.
To read Rutledge’s letter to Reed, click here.
