Lawmakers in Arkansas advanced legislation on Wednesday that would set aside revenue from medical marijuana taxes to pay for free breakfast for students.
The bill, SB 59, would supplement federal free and reduced-price meal funds with money from a state Food Insecurity Fund, paid for by cannabis taxes as well as private grants and money from the state’s general fund.
Republican Sen. Jonathan Dismang, the lead sponsor of the proposal, noted at a Senate Education Committee hearing that students are legally required to be in school.
“We want them to be successful,” he said. “Let’s give them the basic tool to be successful, and that is to start the day without and empty stomach.”
The bill would provide meals to students regardless of whether or not they qualify for free or reduced-cost food under federal law.
Dismang likened the would-be program to other “resources and tools” provided by the state to students, such as laptops. “To me this is no different,” he said. “Let’s start them out on the right foot, let them have the option, and let’s do something about the food insecurity problems we have in the state.”
One member of the panel, Sen. Joshua Bryant (R), who posed a number of skeptical questions about Dismang’s bill during the hearing, asked what would happen if state lawmakers tried to limit the state’s medical marijuana program.
“Because we’re using medical marijuana revenues to fund these types of programs,” he said, “is it a concern that if a member of the General Assembly wants to restrict, or further pull back the ability of medical marijuana to expand, that we will be met with the argument, ‘You’ll be taking the food out of kids’ mouths if you do that’?”
“I don’t think so. It’s a constitutional amendment,” Dismang replied, referring to the states’ voter-approved medical cannabis law. “Unless we’re going to pass a constitutional amendment doing away with what’s there, or someone else comes up with another one.”
“We would have to reassess, I think, future taxation depending on how we move forward,” he added, “whether it’s legalization or whatever. This would probably become a part of that conversation… I don’t know how we can do any more than has been done on limiting utilization of medical marijuana in the state.”
The committee’s favorable report of SB 59 follows an endorsement of the proposal last month from Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R), who previewed the bill in her State of the State address. Notably, Sanders, a former press secretary under the first Trump administration, has historically resisted cannabis policy reform.
“We will also use those funds to make school breakfast in Arkansas completely free for any student that chooses to participate,” she said in the speech, saying the use of medical marijuana funds would make the program “sustainable for years to come.”
Ahead of November’s election, Sanders opposed a ballot initiative that would have expanded Arkansas’s medical marijuana program that was ultimately shuttered by the state Supreme Court.
A survey found that a majority of likely voters in Arkansas were in favor of the initiative.
Despite her opposition to the proposal, Sanders appears open to other modest reforms and maintaining the existing medical cannabis program. For example, in 2023 she signed a bill into law clarifying that medical marijuana patients can obtain concealed carry licenses for firearms despite federal law still prohibiting cannabis users from possessing guns.
The state’s medical marijuana has proved popular since its implementation in 2019, with officials announcing last May that at least 102,000 residents have registered for patient cards, exceeding expectations.
However, Arkansas voters defeated a ballot initiative to more broadly legalize marijuana for adults in 2022.
Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.
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