Arkansas Caregiver Card — Eligibility, Background Check, & the 5-Patient Limit

Last verified: May 2026

What a Caregiver Is

An Arkansas-registered caregiver is an adult authorized under Amendment 98 to purchase, transport, and administer medical cannabis on behalf of a registered qualifying patient. Caregivers are typically family members, professional in-home health aides, or close family friends serving an elderly, minor, or severely disabled patient.

Eligibility Requirements

• 21 years of age or older. Minors cannot be caregivers, even for younger siblings.
• No excluded felony conviction. Excluded felonies under Amendment 98 include violent offenses, drug-distribution felonies, and certain financial-fraud felonies. Possession-only convictions are typically not disqualifying, but the ADH background-check process makes the determination case-by-case.
• $34 fingerprint-based background check. Caregivers must submit fingerprints and pay the $34 fee at an ADH-approved fingerprinting site.
• $50 ADH application fee for the caregiver registration itself.
• Designated by the qualifying patient on the patient’s ADH application or as a separate amendment to an existing patient registration.

The 5-Patient Limit (and the Family Exception)

A registered caregiver may serve up to five qualifying patients simultaneously. The cap exists to prevent quasi-distribution operations operating under caregiver registrations.

The 5-patient cap is relaxed when all served patients are family members — defined as the caregiver’s spouse, parent, child, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, or in-law. A grandparent serving multiple grandchildren-as-patients, or a single parent serving multiple minor-children-as-patients, can exceed the 5-patient cap under the family exception.

What Caregivers Can Do

• Purchase cannabis at any Arkansas-licensed dispensary on behalf of the registered patient, up to the patient’s 2.5 oz / 14-day rolling limit. The seed-to-sale tracking system enforces the limit per patient, not per caregiver.
• Transport cannabis from the dispensary to the patient’s residence. The product must remain in its original sealed dispensary packaging during transport.
• Administer cannabis to the registered patient — meaning, deliver the dose to the patient. This includes preparing edibles or tinctures, applying topicals, or assisting a patient who cannot self-administer.
• Possess caregiver-quantity cannabis in compliance with the patient(s) caps.

What Caregivers Cannot Do

• Cannot use cannabis purchased for a patient. The 2.5 oz / 14-day limit is the patient’s limit, not a caregiver’s personal supply.
• Cannot grow cannabis at home. Amendment 98 § 6(b) bars home cultivation by patients and caregivers.
• Cannot redistribute. Caregiver-purchased cannabis is for the named patient only. Sharing or selling to non-patients is a Schedule VI delivery offense (see possession-penalties page).
• Cannot consume in a public place. Public consumption rules apply to caregivers as to patients.

Minor Patients & Parental Caregivers

Minor patients (under 18) require a parental caregiver. The caregiver must be the minor’s parent or legal guardian (or a designated alternative). Both the minor patient and the parental caregiver must be registered with ADH. Practitioner certification for minor patients typically requires:

• A diagnosed qualifying condition documented by the treating pediatric specialist.
• Pediatric oncologist or pediatric neurologist concurrence in many cases.
• Specific informed-consent documentation acknowledging the FDA-cleared status of cannabis treatments (CBD-based Epidiolex for certain seizure disorders is FDA-approved; whole-plant cannabis is not).

Caregiver Cards and Federal Background Considerations

Caregivers, like patients, are subject to federal-law-based employment and clearance considerations:

• Caregiver registration is recorded in ADH’s patient registry. ADH’s rules wall off the registry from law enforcement except by formal legal process, but the registration is a state-government record.
• Federal employees and security-clearance holders should consider that being a registered caregiver places them in a state cannabis registry — which under SF-86 continuous-evaluation programs may surface in clearance reviews.
• Arkansas’s 2023 statute permits cardholders to obtain Arkansas concealed-carry licenses despite the federal Gun Control Act bar on cannabis-user firearm ownership; caregivers receive the same Arkansas-law protection but the federal ATF Form 4473 still asks the cannabis-user question.

Renewal and Removal

Caregiver registrations follow the patient’s 1-year card validity. When the patient renews, the caregiver renews. A caregiver may be removed by the patient at any time via amendment of the patient’s ADH registration. ADH may revoke a caregiver registration upon a disqualifying felony conviction, suspected diversion, or violation of dispensary purchase rules.

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