LITTLE ROCK (AP/KATV) — Arkansas officials have halted their evaluation of applications to sell medical marijuana after a judge struck down the state’s licensing process for businesses that want to grow the drug.
A spokesman for the Department of Finance and Administration on Wednesday said the Medical Marijuana Commission’s review of dispensary applications has been put on hold in response to last month’s ruling regarding cultivation facilities.
Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen ruled the state’s licensing process for the cultivation facilities violated a 2016 voter-approved amendment legalizing medical marijuana.
The state has appealed Griffen’s ruling to the Arkansas Supreme Court.
The commission had begun reviewing some of the 227 applications it had received for dispensaries to sell marijuana to qualified patients.
“We are under an injunction that voids the method of cultivation scoring. Therefore, dispensary application review is on hold as we review the situation,” Scott Hardin with DFA told KATV in Little Rock.
