The generally dispiriting results of the Arkansas Poll contained but one bright spot: The growing support for medical marijuana in the state.
As the Arkansas Poll summary noted:
Medical marijuana represented the largest shift in opinion over recent years. In 2012, 44 percent of respondents in that year’s poll said they approved of a ballot measure allowing marijuana use for medical purposes and 52 percent opposed it. A ballot measure on the topic failed that year by an even closer margin. In this year’s poll, answering a generic question about the subject, 68 percent of respondents said they were in favor of the measure with 26 percent opposing.
Attorney David Couch of Little Rock also took note of this in telling me that he has filed another medical marijuana proposal for approval by the attorney general as to form. Other marijuana measures, including total legalization, are in the mill.
PS — A group that has been circulating a medical marijuana petition since last September, after approval of form by then-Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, asks we link to their account of the various efforts underway in Arkansas. It’s one of three currently certified for signatures on petitions.