By Steve Brawner, © 2022 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

I plan to vote no on all four proposed constitutional amendments on the Arkansas ballot because one is terrible, and the costs and risks outweigh the benefits for the other three.

The terrible one is Issue 4, which would legalize recreational marijuana in Arkansas by creating a constitutionally closed market dominated by a privileged few. 

If it passes, licenses would be granted to the eight cultivators who already have medical marijuana licenses. (Guess who funded this campaign?) Another 12 much smaller growers could get licenses, but they really wouldn’t be competing against the big eight. Individuals couldn’t grow their own marijuana. Under the amendment, 120 dispensaries would be licensed, including those with current medical marijuana licenses. 

The amendment caps taxes on recreational marijuana at the sales tax rate plus another 10%, which is less than it’s taxed in other states. Any tax increase would require another constitutional amendment. Taxes on medical marijuana would be eliminated. Local governments could not tax the farms or the stores, or zone them.

Hmm. Could I get something into the Arkansas Constitution guaranteeing a closed market for current syndicated columnists? Donate to my campaign!

David Couch, who wrote the state’s medical marijuana law, is opposed to this measure. He said because of the way it’s written, it could put out of business the state’s hemp producers as well as all the stores selling CBD products derived from the marijuana plant. 

Summing it up, he said, “They don’t want to make a lot of money. They want to make all the money.”  Continue reading No on all four, especially 4 →

By Steve Brawner 

© 2022 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

If you want a say in who governs you at the federal, state and county levels, in most parts of Arkansas it’s more important that you vote in May than in November.

Many voters don’t vote in primaries but then vote in the November general elections. In the last midterms in 2018, only 18.76% of Arkansas’ registered voters, or 327,629 people, went to the polls. Turnout was much higher in November, with 898,793 Arkansans, about 50% of registered voters, voting.

Three million people live in this state.

Sen. Jim Hendren of Gravette, the Legislature’s only independent and the founder of Common Ground Arkansas, says voters kind of have it backwards. They should vote in both May and November, but the primaries are more important because most Arkansans live in places dominated by one party – Republicans, usually – and Arkansas as a state is dominated by Republicans. The November election is often a formality, with the minority party offering little to no opposition. Continue reading It’s more important to vote in May than in November. Here’s why. →