Proposal to Legalize Pot in Arkansas Rejected Due to Spelling Errors

October 27, 2015 in Blogs

“Fix your typos, then we'll talk,” Arkansas Attorney General suggests.

You’d better remember to cross your T’s and dot your I’s—and to use your spellcheck feature—before you attempt to submit a proposal to legalize marijuana in Arkansas. Otherwise, Attorney General Leslie Rutledge will send it right back to you with a note suggesting you get your spelling game together.

That’s apparently what happened with a proposal submitted earlier this year intending to make it legal to cultivate, manufacture, sell, possess and distribute weed in the state. According to AG Leslie Rutledge, the proposal was confusing and had to be rejected “due to ambiguities in the text.” (One example cited: “The proposal equates the words 'three tenths of one percent' and the numeric expression .03%.” The two are not in fact equal, so your intent is impossible to determine.”)

Rutledge concludes her rejection thusly:

Finally, amending the Arkansas Constitution is a serious matter that merits greater attention to detail than evidenced by the proposal, which contains several errors of spelling and syntax that tend to obscure its meaning. I urge you to review the proposal carefully to locate and correct such errors in the event you redesign and resubmit the proposal.

There’s a joke about stoners drafting bills in here somewhere, but it’s too easy to make. The AG invited the proposal writers to check their work, make their fixes and resubmit “at [their] convenience.”