What I Know About Issue 6 So Far | Part 2
Perfidious Delegates
Arkansas, the habitually hesitant state.
Arkansas, like many states in the USA, has seen tremendous support for marijuana law reform. With four states as well as our country’s capitol all allowing full legal use, to medicinal statues in almost half of the states in our country, Arkansas has decided to wake up from it’s “always last to show up” slumber.
This year we have seen the Arkansas Cannabis Act, a full legalization initiative, narrowly miss its target of the needed petitions to make the ballot, largely in part to Arkansas attorney general Leslie Rutledge, stonewalling the initiative over wording. We have seen an almost entirely grassroots medicinal initiative, started by Arkansans for Compassionate Care, once again come to life; resurrected after its narrow defeat in 2012 as “The Arkansas Medicinal Cannabis Act.”
If you read the first part of this discussion, you already know that the AMCA, or issue 7 was suddenly and unexpectedly disqualified by the Arkansas Supreme Court. There is another; an initiative, a constitutional amendment, with profits and power as a driving force, fully against the best interest of the chronically ill and the people of Arkansas. We have made it this far down the rabbit hole, lets see how deep it goes.
I apologize, but a brief moment of conjecture on my behalf is required before we proceed. The term marijuana is useful as a term as it is commonly understood to define a substance. To be fair, it’s cannabis folks, the correct term both scientifically and morally. Marijuana or “marihuana” was a term used by Mexican immigrants in the early 1900s. Quickly demonized as a way to control the immigrant population, marijuana was blamed for all negative behavior of Latino immigrants, much in the same way the white majority used opium to control Asian immigrants the late 1800’s and crack cocaine to effectively quarantine black families in the 1980's and 1990's. The reason I have included this information, despite it may be slightly off topic is simple. You will notice, only one proposed issue on the ballot uses the term Marijuana, perhaps they just don’t understand the implications.
Over the last decade, the social pendulum swings towards cannabis policy reform as it has earned more than its fair share of attention over the last year. We know now that special interests in investment firms and the alcohol industry have done everything to minimize the damage to their pocketbooks. What about the elected leaders in the natural state? They have settled into the pockets of these financial interests, have personal and political agendas against the will of the people, or they have know idea how to govern a people. Let’s look at our incredibly perfidious delegates, our elected officials and the law firms that swarm around them.
The little attorney that could
Kara Lynn Benca
Attorney Kara Benca, easily one of the most disliked people in Arkansas this year. Ms Benca spearheaded the campaign to bring issue 7 before the Arkansas Supreme Court. If you notice she advertises her membership in NORML(National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws). NORML officially supported issue 7, and when asked about Benca’s involvement with the lawsuit against issue 7, NORML founder Keith Stroup responded in an email,
NORML was disappointed when we learned that an attorney who is a member of the NORML Legal Committee had filed a challenge to one of the two pending medical use initiatives in Arkansas, and we were further disappointed to learn today that the Arkansas Supreme Court had disqualified that initiative for a lack of adequate signatures. (WEB)
Patrick Benca, husband and fellow attorney, recently wrote a blog entry in defense of his law firm and his wife. Patrick begins with a surprisingly positive, logical message. On his blog, Patrick writes,
It is important that you know that Kara and I are for the outright legalization of marijuana. Period. That has always been our position for as long as we have been seeing clients walk through our doors addicted to methamphetamine, cocaine, and most recently opioids — you know them better as prescription pills such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, and the like. You are likely aware that these drugs kill unsuspecting souls and the results are nothing short of catastrophic to innocent families and loved-ones. In nearly twenty-five (25) years of combined criminal defense practice, Kara and I have noticed that we see no clients whose lives are devastated by the use of marijuana.
Support for full legalization? Patrick, as much as I’d like to believe you, let’s take a look at your words that follow. Benca continues,
As most of you know, in 2012 medical marijuana was on the ballot. Prior to it being on the ballot, David Couch and Melissa Fults conducted a poll to see if Arkansas voters were interested in voting for medical marijuana. David and Melissa polled the issue with those who voted and found that some Arkansans were not comfortable with the “self-grow” provision in the ballot measure.” And Benca shows the self righteousness of David Couch when he writes, “since it killed the opportunity to get the much needed medicine to patients in 2012, it was deemed problematic.
Who gave Couch the right to deem anything as problematic? How was it Couch’s job to hire the law firm to shut down issue 7? How is it, that a lifetime NORML member attorney risked everything to kill issue 7? Couch has donors with money, lots and lots of money.
Did I mention they have lots of money?
Couch, the self avowed “superhero of marijuana reform”, swoops into Arkansas, pays a small law firm $30,000 to aid issue 6 in the removal of issue 7, and thinks our citizens will turn a blind eye? I believe Benca and Benca understand this now. The people are waking up.
And now boys and girls, it is question time. What is 20 times worse than paying an attorney 30 grand to kill a grassroots initiative?
Survey says:
Heidi Gay
Heidi Gay, the owner of and founder of National Ballot Access, a major signature collection company, stated that she found signatures that should be disqualified on issue 7. Gay collected more than 130,000 signatures for issue 6 and was paid more than $600,000 for doing this. In addition, according to Gay, she bankrolled another $30,000 to find errors in the Arkansas Medical Cannabis Act’s signatures; another sucker punch for democracy!
The Arkansas Supreme Court
Always basking in the warmth of a corruption accusation, the Arkansas supreme court made the final decision to disqualify issue 7 after they were presented evidence(questionable evidence) that the total signatures needed were not met per Arkansas law. In the words of David Brancaccio of Marketplace on NPR, “here are the numbers”:
- The Arkansas Medical Cannabis Act, also known as issue 7, was required to reach 67,877 signatures in order to reach the ballot.
- The Arkansas Medical Cannabis Act, also known as issue 7, was required to reach 67,877 signatures in order to reach the ballot.
- After disqualifying more than 12,000 signatures, according to court documents. Now the issue is nearly 2,500 signatures shy of the ballot requirement.
- About 6000 signatures were disqualified because there was suspicion of paid canvassers. However there has been no proof that any of those signatures thrown out had canvassers that were paid. This here is the worst part; no evidence of paid canvassers.
- Arkansas attorney General, Leslie Rutledge was required to review and validate the signatures, and because of this, issue 7 made it onto the ballot.
Leslie Rutledge
I will not get into my personal distaste for our Attorney General, but I will say she is an obstructionist, and she has zero problem when placing her opinion and beliefs above the will of the state of Arkansas.
Arkansas Attorney general, Leslie Rutledge was tasked with the approval of the initiative’s name as well as the wording of the act. As with anything out of the realm her hyper conservatism, she has made this extremely difficult on many grassroots efforts including the Arkansas Cannabis Act that failed this spring and obviously issue 7. Rutledge is a rabid Donald Trump supporter, often putting party before people as she did as an adviser for former governor, Mike Huckabee’s presidential campaign.
Asa Hutchinson
Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson is a former Administrator for the DEA as well as Undersecretary for Border & Transportation Security at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. It is no wonder Hutchinson is against the legalization of cannabis, his prior positions made far too much money off imprisoning non violent drug offenders and intercepting drugs at the border. There is much I could say about Hutchinson, but his record speaks for itself. The Arkansas Supreme court, Leslie Rutledge and Hutchinson have all been extremely vocal about their dislike of issue 7. It seems like the people of this state are left with no voice; we are simply peasants for our leadership.
So much more, no more time
With less than 48 hours until the polls close, I am running out of time, so I will leave this here. It is not a complete list of the scandals within our state government. I personally will be voting for issue 7 even though it is not to be counted. I do not support issue 6 and I think it is bad for Arkansas.
Take care everyone, have a safe week. Go vote, or not, it is your right either way.
Ben
