Last verified: May 2026
What Edgmon Held (1951–2025)
For 74 years, Arkansas constitutional law followed the Arkansas Supreme Court’s 1951 decision in Edgmon v. State, which held that the General Assembly could not amend voter-approved constitutional amendments by ordinary statute or even by 2/3 supermajority. Voter-passed amendments could only be revised by another voter referendum or by full constitutional convention.
Edgmon’s effect on Amendment 98 (passed 2016) was to make the medical-cannabis program structurally durable. The General Assembly could pass implementing statutes, but could not directly alter the substance of Amendment 98 — the qualifying conditions, the 8/40 license caps, the 2.5 oz / 14-day limit, the home-grow ban, the workplace-protection language — without going back to the voters.
What Changed in December 2025
In December 2025, the Arkansas Supreme Court overturned Edgmon in a case involving a different (non-cannabis) voter-passed amendment. The new doctrine: the General Assembly may amend any voter-approved constitutional amendment by a two-thirds vote of both chambers. The 2/3 threshold is meaningful but not insurmountable in either Arkansas chamber given current Republican supermajorities.
The implications for Amendment 98 were immediate and well-understood within the Arkansas political community. For the first time since 2016, the medical-cannabis program is vulnerable to direct legislative alteration without a voter referendum.
The Bart Hester "Review" Signal
Per January 2026 Arkansas Advocate reporting, multiple legislators — including Senate President Bart Hester (R-Cave Springs) — have publicly signaled they may use the Edgmon ruling to "review" Amendment 98 in the 2027 legislative session. Specific possibilities mentioned in the reporting:
- Raising the medical-cannabis privilege tax above the current 4% (potentially driving more revenue into the SB 59 Food Insecurity Fund).
- Tightening qualifying-condition certification standards.
- Imposing additional requirements on cultivators or dispensaries.
- Restructuring AMMC or ABC oversight responsibilities.
None of these is a fully formed legislative proposal as of May 2026. But the signal — that the legislative leadership views Amendment 98 as legitimately amendable now — has reshaped patient-advocate strategy.
David Couch’s Tax-Migration Warning
David Couch, the original Amendment 98 drafting attorney, has publicly warned that higher Arkansas taxes could push patients across the Missouri border for recreational purchase — eroding the very tax base SB 59 now relies on for school breakfast.
The math: Arkansas medical patients already pay an effective 11.5%–15.5% tax burden at the dispensary register. If the privilege tax rises above its current 4%, Arkansas’s pricing disadvantage versus Missouri rec (similar effective taxes but ~half AR prices to begin with) would widen. Patients with the means to drive could shift consumption to Missouri rec stores, and the Arkansas tax base would shrink — collapsing the SB 59 funding stream.
Save AR Democracy — The Citizen-Initiative Response
The Save AR Democracy initiative was launched in late 2025 / early 2026 as a citizen-initiated constitutional amendment to restore Edgmon-era protections (or comparable structures) for voter-passed amendments. The initiative was a direct-democracy reform, not a cannabis measure per se, but its supporters included substantial overlap with the cannabis-reform community.
Per the Rockefeller Institute of Government, the Save AR Democracy signature campaign’s 2026 effort was unsuccessful — falling short of the 90,704-signature threshold by the July 3, 2026 deadline. The reasons cited included a series of statutes from 2023–2025 that had substantially raised the bar for citizen-initiated constitutional amendments:
- New canvasser-residency requirements.
- Photo-ID requirements at signing.
- Expanded notarization requirements.
- An enlarged county-distribution requirement.
- Stricter ballot-title-review standards.
A federal lawsuit challenging several of these provisions remains pending as of May 2026.
What This Means for Amendment 98
The cumulative effect of Edgmon’s reversal and Save AR Democracy’s failure is that:
- The General Assembly can, by 2/3 vote in 2027, amend Amendment 98 directly.
- The citizen-initiative process — which would otherwise be the protective mechanism — is at its most constrained point in modern Arkansas history.
- Patient-advocate strategy has shifted from ballot-measure reform (Issue 3 path) to legislative defense — lobbying current legislators to oppose adverse Amendment 98 amendments.
The Practical Arithmetic
The constitutional amendment process under the new doctrine requires a 2/3 vote in each chamber of the General Assembly. As of May 2026:
- Arkansas Senate (35 seats): 29 Republicans, 6 Democrats. 2/3 threshold = 24 votes; Republicans alone exceed it.
- Arkansas House (100 seats): 81 Republicans, 19 Democrats. 2/3 threshold = 67 votes; Republicans alone exceed it.
The arithmetic permits Republican-only amendment of Amendment 98 if the caucus chooses to do so. The question is whether the caucus has the political will — and whether SB 59’s school-breakfast funding stream creates institutional reluctance to disrupt the program.
The Federal-Rescheduling Wildcard
One factor that could change all of this overnight is federal cannabis rescheduling. The DEA’s proposed move of cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III would not legalize recreational cannabis, but would alter the federal-employer drug-testing landscape, eliminate the IRS Code § 280E penalty on cannabis businesses, and potentially trigger Issue 3-style state-law federal-trigger provisions in other states. Arkansas has no such trigger provision. The Schedule III move has been pending administrative finalization since 2024.
For in-depth cannabis education, dosing guides, safety information, and research summaries, visit our partner site TryCannabis.org
Related on this site: Arkansas Issue 3 (2024), Arkansas Issue 4 (2022), Arkansas Cannabis Politicians.