The ownership landscape of Arkansas’ medical marijuana industry remains unclear, despite efforts to enhance transparency. When the amendment to legalize medical marijuana was created a decade ago, the authors intended for at least 60% of the ownership of dispensaries and cultivators to be held by Arkansans. However, nearly nine years after the passage of Amendment 98, state records provide only a limited view of the ownership structure of cannabis companies in the state.
In January, Arkansas Business requested ownership records for the state’s 37 dispensaries and eight cultivators. The state’s regulators responded on February 28, providing 35 organizational charts that, in many instances, did not clearly identify ownership stakes or the locations of the owners. For example, one chart for Custom Cannabis in Alexander listed owners and their percentages but omitted the company name entirely. Another chart for Osage Creek Dispensary failed to list any names, instead only identifying positions such as “owner,” “chief operating officer,” and “inventory manager.”
Despite these shortcomings, Scott Hardin from the state Department of Finance & Administration described the charts as “the clearest snapshot of overall ownership and operation” that the state could offer. He noted that a complete list of individual owners is obtained annually in May when all permits must be renewed with the Medical Marijuana Commission. In a few months, every permit holder will be required to submit detailed ownership information, which will be standardized, though much personal data will be redacted.
In 2019, Arkansas Business had previously compiled a list of owners for each licensed medical marijuana business by analyzing their license applications. After several notable individuals divested from the industry, the publication aimed to create an updated ownership list and compare it to the original group of investors. However, this task proved unfeasible due to the significant number of ownership changes—over 100 since May 2019, when the first dispensaries opened. Hardin mentioned that he regularly receives requests for ownership information, but these are usually specific to individual permits, making those inquiries much more manageable.
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