A coalition including several powerful lobbying groups filed
papers with the Arkansas Ethics Commission Tuesday to fight medical marijuana issues headed for the November ballot.

Surgeon General Gregory Bledsoe had emerged this week as a spokesman for the group.

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Participants in the effort include the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce, the Arkansas Farm Bureau Federation, the Coalition for Safer Arkansas Communities, the Religious Right Family Council Action Committee and the Arkansas Committee for Ethics Policy, an arm of the church-backed Faith and Ethics Council which has long participated in campaigns against alcohol, gambling and the like. 

Our mention of Bledsoe triggered some robust back-and-forth between Bledsoe and advocates for medical marijuana on his Twitter page. See it here. Much debate over the medical value of marijuana as well as arguments about a proposed initiated act’s use of tax on the product to pay for regulation and offset the cost for poor people and about a proposed amendment’s plan to regulate for-profit sellers through a system akin to alcohol regulation.

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Polls say otherwise, perhaps, but I’m still more in favor of the Colorado approach — legalization.

The group formed to fight medical marijuana hasn’t yet reported financial information.

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