Arkansas has become the first state in the Deep South to qualify a medical marijuana initiative for the ballot.

Arkansas Secretary of State Mark Martin on Wednesday certified the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act has enough signatures to be on the November 6 General Election ballot. The proposal needed a minimum of 62,507 signatures from registered voters to qualify.

“Compassionate Care is an important issue for thousands of Arkansans and their families,” said Melissa Fults, treasurer for Arkansans for Compassionate Care. “This is something the people of Arkansas want to discuss. We’ve always been a leader in the South and now we’re the first one to put medical marijuana on the ballot and have a real discussion about it.”

If voters approve the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act, the state will join 17 others and Washington, D.C., in allowing doctors to write recommendations for marijuana to alleviate specified medical conditions. The Arkansas Act is largely based on the medical marijuana law in Maine that passed in 2009 and has become one of the nation’s most successful.