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First Medical Marijuana Public Hearing Quiet, Quick

Former Supreme Court Justice Paul Danielson was one of several speakers today at the Arkansas Department of Health's first public hearing who expressed concern that the department was delaying and adding expense to the state's new medical marijuana program through its regulatory plans.
Bobby Ampezzan
/
Arkansas Public Media
Former Supreme Court Justice Paul Danielson was one of several speakers today at the Arkansas Department of Health's first public hearing who expressed concern that the department was delaying and adding expense to the state's new medical marijuana program through its regulatory plans.

Listen to the story here.

Former Supreme Court Justice Paul Danielson was one of several speakers today at the Arkansas Department of Health's first public hearing who expressed concern that the department was delaying and adding expense to the state's new medical marijuana program through its regulatory plans.
Credit Bobby Ampezzan / Arkansas Public Media
/
Arkansas Public Media
Former Supreme Court Justice Paul Danielson was one of several speakers today at the Arkansas Department of Health's first public hearing who expressed concern that the department was delaying and adding expense to the state's new medical marijuana program through its regulatory plans.

Fewer than a dozen speakers piped up at the Arkansas Department of Health’s first public hearing today, and the whole affair — advertised around the state and referrenced often on social media — finished in about 40 minutes.

Several speakers voiced concern that the health department was overreaching for quality control through proposed batch sampling and laboratory testing thresholds, and that such a regulatory structure was hindering the rollout of the therapy, and promises to pass those costs on to the patients. 

"The bottom line is if we regulate this to the point where it costs so much that people can't afford it, people might as well have not voted for it. You defeat the whole purpose, and you're going to drive people back to the streets and to the black market," said former Supreme Court Justice Paul Danielson.

Storm Nolan of the Arkansas Cannabis Industry Association
Credit Bobby Ampezzan / Arkansas Public Media
/
Arkansas Public Media
Storm Nolan of the Arkansas Cannabis Industry Association

Storm Nolan of the Arkansas Cannabis Industry Association said $50 for a registry card is too much relative to the entry fee to purchase pharmaceuticals — that is, nothing.

Robert Brech, lawyer for the department who alone fielded the comments, said other pharmaceuticals have the Federal Drug Administration. Marijuana doesn't, and so it's up to the state health department.

No one was more inquisitive than Deborah Beuerman. She asked if she could make cannabidiol oil at home, if a designated caregiver could also be a patient, if there will be limits on how potent (how much tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)) a serving may be sold, and how come they're "servings" when other drugs are "doses?"

Department counsel Robert Brech speaks with Deborah Beuerman of Little Rock.
Credit Bobby Ampezzan / Arkansas Public Media
/
Arkansas Public Media
Department counsel Robert Brech speaks with Deborah Beuerman of Little Rock.

Afterward, Brech said he was a little surprised by the few number of comments. If anyone did point out a glaring omission in the department’s plans, it would force a new draft phase and new public comment period.

The deadline for the health department’s final regulatory plan is early May, and Brech expects to hit that mark, but he repeated his prediction that the state is many months away from available marijuana. He also reminded the crowd that the federal government at any time could shut the program down. It’s illegal, after all.

Copyright 2017 Arkansas Public Media

Bobby Ampezzan
Bobby Ampezzan is a native of Detroit who holds degrees from Dickinson College (Carlisle, PA) and the University of Arkansas (Fayetteville). He's written for The Guardian newspaper and Oxford American magazine and was a longtime staff writer for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. The best dimestore nugget he's lately discovered comes from James Altucher's Choose Yourself (actually, the Times' profile on Altucher, which quotes the book): "I lose at least 20 percent of my intelligence when I am resentful." Meanwhile, his faith in public radio and television stems from the unifying philosophy that not everything be serious, but curiosity should follow every thing, and that we be serious about curiosity.