Brian Chilson

NEA Report has been doing some useful reporting on the vagaries of law enforcement when cops encounter people with medical marijuana cards and marijuana in their possession. Prediction: Court cases will be necessary to sort it out.

The latest: Jonesboro Police Chief Rick Elliott and Craighead Sheriff Marty Boyd have issued a declaration on how their officers will proceed when they encounter people with marijuana that’s not in dispensary containers: They’ll make an arrest.

The law requires that medical marijuana be sold in child-proof packaging. It’s silent on whether those who purchase it must store it in that packaging. But the statement from Elliott and Boyd said:


…it is our intention to enforce the requirements that all medical marijuana remain in its original packaging. We understand that there are differing opinions regarding this issue; however, until such time as further clarification is provided by the legislature or the courts, this will be our position. The way the AMMA is written, having a medical marijuana certification is an affirmative defense to a possession of controlled substance-related offense. If the rules and regulations of the AMMA are not followed, the ability to use the affirmative defense is lost.”

So users in Jonesboro and Craighead have been warned. Keep your MMJ in the original dispensary container.

I probably don’t need to add that it’s a simple matter to store marijuana obtained elsewhere in a dispensary container.


There will be many questions to resolve. A recent arrest in West Memphis involved a medical marijuana card holder who the police said had his marijuana in a baggie rather than the dispensary container. He contends the law essentially decriminalized possession of small amounts, no matter what container is used.

Will police insist on doing forensic tests to justify a misdemeanor marijuana arrest on the ground that illicit cannabis had been placed in a legal container? It is another reason perhaps not to push hard on misdemeanor enforcement, a policy that Little Rock City Director Ken Richardson has said she be made official in the capital.

PS: The subject arose on Twitter this morning and Little Rock lawyer David Couch, who worked for adoption of the medical marijuana measure, offered an opinion on the local cops’ declaration:

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