Dear Friends,
Today The Arkansas Family Council held a press conference announcing they are working with State Senators Jeremy Hutchinson and Johnny Key, who are seeking an opinion from Attorney General McDaniel on whether or not the proposed Issue 5 would open Arkansas up to marijuana vending machines.
Marijuana is dispensed through vending machines in California. Some people are trying to get Connecticut to permit vending machines under its marijuana program. Vending machines seem to be the future of the ‘medical’ marijuana industry.
These machines are basically high-tech snack machines that sell marijuana and marijuana-infused food instead of potato chips.
Having read the measure, I don’t think there’s anything in Issue 5 that would prohibit vending machines. Hopefully Attorney General McDaniel’s office can shed some light on how widespread vending machines might become if Issue 5 passes, next week.
For instance, if Issue 5 passes, can a marijuana dispensary put a vending machine offsite somewhere? Can a dispensary in Magnolia or Jonesboro contract to put a vending machine at a convenience store across town? Can a dispensary put a vending machine out front for people to use in the middle of the night, when the dispensary is closed?
We don’t sell beer out of vending machines. We don’t sell cigarettes out of vending machines. I don’t know why anyone would be comfortable selling marijuana out of vending machines.
You can see the website for the marijuana vending machine (“Med Box”) popular in California here: http://www.thedispensingsolution.com/
Related articles
- Marijuana Vending Machines Coming to Arkansas? (arkansasmatters.com)
- Finally, Heathy Products in a Vending Machine! (maryannemistretta.wordpress.com)
Home's Cool! 
I know that this is a serious issue regarding states rights and citizen sovereignty and medical progress weighed against provincial mores–and yet, I somehow can’t shake the image of stoners picking up their couches and shaking them, and crawling under their car seats, muttering, “Dude–I know there’s got to be another quarter here someplace…”
Yeah, I’m a bad person.
Hello, Misha, and thanks for stopping by!
Yes, it is a serious subject, fraught with power-grabbing, blame, and fears.
However.
The Bible says that laughter doeth good LIKE A MEDICINE!
Bet they won’t put any jokes in vending machines. 😉
Honestly, I can admit that marijuana could have medical uses–I’m not a doctor, so how could I say that it couldn’t? But there is a huge difference between allowing a drug to be prescribed by a doctor and administered under a doctor’s supervision and selling something out of a vending machine. I mean, you can’t get codeine from a vending machine–heck, you can’t buy Excedrin from a vending machine.
The whole concept in American jurisprudence of “controlled substances” is that they are *controlled*, that is, that their use is under the control of a licensed medical professional. The groups in America that are lobbying for the legalization of marijuana use medicine as an excuse, but they don’t want it to be dispensed as a medicine.
Oh, I agree heartily.
Also, if we admit drinking wine produces heart benefits and we want it as medicine, paid for by our new tax/insurance, then we could vend it, too.
If we end up legalizing mj, I want ephedra BACK! It does provable good, recognized worldwide, and is not addictive or mind-altering.
Really, it’s all about lobbying, pure and simple.
Um, really! (Sigh)
Thanks, for stopping by, Christina, and for leaving a comment! It is difficult and even depressing to realize where everything is going.