The Arkansas Landlords Association, in a news release distributed by Jon Gilmore, a former staff member for Gov. Asa Hutchinson, has announced opposition to the medical marijuana initiatives because it says landlords would be forced to rent to people who use marijuana.
Whereas no marijuana users currently occupy rented premises in Arkansas.
And whereas the measures legalize prescribed medical uses of marijuana. The landlords also couldn’t evict someone taking prescribed Oxycontin for pain.
And whereas the landlords don’t evict people who ingest lethal amounts of rage-inducing alcohol.
The landlords say the medical marijuana measures “masquerade” as medicine. The trick has been effective in winning support of 75 percent of the country’s physicians.
The landlords are also responsible, it seems fair to note, for Arkansas having the most draconian landlord-tenant laws in the country. Worst in the country. A little marijuana might make a woefully maintained rental unit in Arkansas marginally more tolerable.
Bottom line: The people who’ve fought to preserve a criminal penalty for failure to pay rent think their business would be diminished if they couldn’t evict someone using a legal substance. Nice bunch.