Licenses lined up for 32 Arkansas marijuana outlets

The panel tasked with issuing Arkansas' first medical marijuana growing and selling permits on Wednesday cleared the final bureaucratic hurdle blocking the drug's implementation in the Natural State by selecting the state's first dispensary operators.

The Arkansas Medical Marijuana Commission, in a unanimous vote, accepted a consulting firm's scores of the 199 applications for the first 32 dispensaries.

The vote inches Arkansas closer to becoming one of 33 states with broad medical marijuana programs, and state officials expect the drug to be available in April.

Arkansas approved Amendment 98 to the Arkansas Constitution, legalizing medical cannabis, in 2016. But court challenges and regulatory hurdles have bogged down the program's implementation, frustrating patients and businessmen alike.

Read more: https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2019/jan/10/licenses-lined-up-for-32-pot-outlets-20/