This Friday ended on a high.
As you may or may not know Medical Marijuana is coming to Arkansas. In my last cannabis-related post, Arkansas Medical Marijuana: September Update, I talked about how the deadline to submit applications to operate dispensaries and cultivation centers is coming up on September 18th at 4:30pm (10 minutes too late), and not a lot have been submitted. Things are changing already.
Here we are a little over a week before the deadline and applications are starting to roll in. According to the Arkansas Times, by the end of the day today, 20 applications had been submitted. Seven of these applications were for cultivation facilities, and the other 13 were for dispensaries. This is a long cry before finding the full number of dispensaries and grow operations, but the deadline isn't here yet.
Very recently a landowner on the outskirts of Little Rock requested a rezoning from residential to commercial for some land just off of a road where commercial property is allowed. The rezoning request was denied to to concerns that the location is too close to a residential area. From what I have seen and heard most dispensaries will be on the outskirts of any city limits, with the possible exception of here in Eureka Springs, where the Mayor, Butch Berry, has said multiple times that we welcome cannabis businesses into our town.
It makes sense, right? Our town was founded during a rush to the healing powers of the natural mineral springs, which still run all around the town. Why not open our hearts, minds, homes and businesses to another healing source.
Cannabis.
Sources:
https://m.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2017/09/07/cannabis-rx-update-more-applications-come-in-to-commission