LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas lawmakers have given final legislative approval and sent to the governor a bill limiting where medical marijuana patients can smoke the drug.
The state Senate voted 31-1 Thursday for the bill to prohibit smoking medical marijuana anywhere tobacco smoke is banned. It also bans anyone under 21 from smoking medical marijuana, bans smoking the drug around anyone under the age of 14 or knowingly smoking the drug in the presence of a pregnant woman. It would also ban smoking medical pot in motor vehicles, aircraft or motorized watercraft.
Arkansas voters in November approved a constitutional amendment legalizing medical marijuana for patients with certain medical conditions. The state is set to begin accepting applications from dispensaries in July. Efforts to ban smoking medical pot outright have failed in the Legislature.