LR Board of Directors Publicly Opposes Medical Marijuana Act
By: Brittney Johnson, KARK 4 News
Updated: November 1, 2012
Little Rock city leaders jumping into the fight over the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act Tuesday .
The mayor added a last minute resolution to the agenda and passed it without public notice.
"All who haven't seen this, I'm not sure we want to be associated with this," Director Ken Richardson said when the resolution opened for debate.
Richardson took a moment to remind his fellow city directors of negative ads from groups opposing the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act.
"A picture of a young black man with a three guns," Richardson said, pointing at a print out of the ad.
City leaders say they're trying to align themselves the Arkansas' drug director who publicly opposed the bill at a press conference last week.
"I can appreciate the fact that there are people who say they get relief from it, there ought to be a better way to do this than what the act provides for," said Mayor Mark Stodola.
Directors agreed to try and distance themselves from the images presented in a TV spot produced by Arkansas Family Council, a group opposing the act.
"This is not the right thing for anybody to do it's terrible, it's horrific it's the wrong thing to do," said Dean Kumpuris.
Directors debated the issue amongst themselves, unbeknownst to those in favor of the act.
"The first thing that bothered me about it is I'm a citizen of the City of Little Rock, I've lived here for 30 years now and I had no notice," said David Couch, attorney for Arkansans for Compassionate Care.
That's because directors voted to add the resolution to the agenda Tuesday without posting it to the website 24 hours in advance which has been required, until last week.
Couch added, "I would have liked to have had our supporters there to answer questions about Issue 5."
While not everyone agreed on how the board addressed the issue, they voted to amend the resolution and pass it.
"The adoption of this resolution is not to be construed in any way as support for or against any specific campaign ads," said director Brad Cazort.
The mayor added a last minute resolution to the agenda and passed it without public notice.
"All who haven't seen this, I'm not sure we want to be associated with this," Director Ken Richardson said when the resolution opened for debate.
Richardson took a moment to remind his fellow city directors of negative ads from groups opposing the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act.
"A picture of a young black man with a three guns," Richardson said, pointing at a print out of the ad.
City leaders say they're trying to align themselves the Arkansas' drug director who publicly opposed the bill at a press conference last week.
"I can appreciate the fact that there are people who say they get relief from it, there ought to be a better way to do this than what the act provides for," said Mayor Mark Stodola.
Directors agreed to try and distance themselves from the images presented in a TV spot produced by Arkansas Family Council, a group opposing the act.
"This is not the right thing for anybody to do it's terrible, it's horrific it's the wrong thing to do," said Dean Kumpuris.
Directors debated the issue amongst themselves, unbeknownst to those in favor of the act.
"The first thing that bothered me about it is I'm a citizen of the City of Little Rock, I've lived here for 30 years now and I had no notice," said David Couch, attorney for Arkansans for Compassionate Care.
That's because directors voted to add the resolution to the agenda Tuesday without posting it to the website 24 hours in advance which has been required, until last week.
Couch added, "I would have liked to have had our supporters there to answer questions about Issue 5."
While not everyone agreed on how the board addressed the issue, they voted to amend the resolution and pass it.
"The adoption of this resolution is not to be construed in any way as support for or against any specific campaign ads," said director Brad Cazort.
Comments
I want to see a study comparing the negative effects of prescription narcotics to marijuana. Tylenol kills more people than marijuana - fact.
Jeremy P.
October 25, 2012 at 5:56 pm
