Cannabis in Arkansas — Amendment 98 & the 9-Year Wait
Arkansas runs one of the South’s earliest and largest medical-only programs under Amendment 98 (2016), serving roughly 115,275 active patient cards as of March 14, 2026. Recreational cannabis remains fully illegal — Issue 4 (2022) failed 56.25% to 43.75%, and Issue 3 (2024) was thrown out by the Arkansas Supreme Court before votes were counted. The 9-year delay between the 2016 vote and Doctor’s Orders RX’s May 10, 2019 first sale defines this market.
Arkansas runs one of the South’s earliest and largest medical-only programs under Amendment 98 (2016), serving roughly 115,275 active patient cards as of March 14, 2026. Recreational cannabis remains fully illegal — Issue 4 (2022) failed 56.25% to 43.75%, and Issue 3 (2024) was thrown out by the Arkansas Supreme Court before votes were counted. The 9-year delay between the 2016 vote and Doctor’s Orders RX’s May 10, 2019 first sale defines this market. Read the dispensary directory, browse the amendment 98, understand the neighbor states, check out the little rock, explore the delta blues, and see the act 629.
A Bible-Belt First, a 913-Day Wait, and a Recreational Reset
On November 8, 2016, Arkansas voters approved Amendment 98 by 53.11% to 46.89% — making Arkansas the first state in the Bible Belt to legalize medical cannabis at the ballot box. Implementation took 913 days: scoring disputes, license litigation, and software problems delayed the first sale until May 10, 2019, at Doctor’s Orders RX (now Suite 443) outside Hot Springs.
Issue 4 in 2022 (recreational) failed 56.25% to 43.75%. Issue 3 in 2024 (medical expansion + federal-trigger rec) was enjoined by the Arkansas Supreme Court 4–3 before any votes were counted. In December 2025 the same Court overturned its 1951 Edgmon doctrine, holding that the General Assembly may amend voter-passed amendments — including Amendment 98 — by two-thirds vote. Arkansas voters got a tightly bounded medical program; the program is now, for the first time, vulnerable to direct legislative alteration.
SB 59 / Act 122 of 2025 (Sen. Jonathan Dismang) signed by Gov. Sanders on February 20, 2025 routes medical-cannabis tax revenue (~$32.3M in 2025) into a new Food Insecurity Fund, funding universal free school breakfast for the 2025–26 school year. A Republican governor defends a Schedule VI tax because it feeds hungry kids.
Amendment 98 § 6(b) bars patients from growing their own cannabis. Possession of paraphernalia "with purpose to grow marijuana" is a Class D felony under Ark. Code § 5-64-443. The single most important practical limitation Arkansas patients face.
Act 629 (2023) and Act 934 (2025) reclassified delta-8, delta-10, and synthetic cannabinoids as Schedule VI controlled substances. After the 8th Circuit reversed the Bio Gen injunction (July 2025), AG Tim Griffin certified enforcement on August 27, 2025. DFA seized 6,000+ products within three months.
Amendment 98 § 3(f)(3) prohibits patient-status discrimination but explicitly preserves employer drug-free-workplace rights. Walmart, Tyson, J.B. Hunt (DOT-regulated), Little Rock AFB, Pine Bluff Arsenal — the card protects almost no one in safety-sensitive or federal-contract roles.
Where Patients Find a Dispensary
Arkansas’s ~36 active dispensaries cluster in eight zones across the state. Pulaski County (Little Rock) holds the largest cluster, followed by Garland (Hot Springs), Benton-Washington (NWA), and Sebastian (Fort Smith) at the Oklahoma border. The state’s top-grossing dispensary remains Suite 443 in Hot Springs — site of Arkansas’s first legal sale on May 10, 2019.
Where the Delta Blues and the Ozark Counterculture Meet
From Helena’s King Biscuit Time and the Highway 61 corridor to the Eureka Springs / Buffalo National River back-to-the-land scene, Arkansas’s cannabis culture lives in two old subcultures the law never reached. Helena’s Greenlight Dispensary now serves a majority-Black patient population that — a generation earlier — was the disproportionate target of the same laws still in effect for non-cardholders.
The Delta Blues HeritageFor in-depth cannabis education, dosing guides, safety information, and research summaries, visit our partner site TryCannabis.org