Arkansas and Florida start moving toward voter-approved medical marijuana systems, Massachusetts activists push for greater patient access, and more.

How many plants will marijuana producers in Arkansas be allowed to grow at a time?

It's a question regulators in Arkansas are facing... and its one that's caused big controversies in other states where medical marijuana is legal.

In Arkansas, there will be five marijuana cultivators supplying the drug to dispensaries across the state. But how much they will be allowed to grow at any given time remains a question.  

"You don't know exactly what the demand in the state of Arkansas is going to be," Marijuana amendment sponsor David Couch said.  

Just this week, the new Arkansas Medical Marijuana Commission made getting into the pot growing business a pricy endeavor.

• The state of Arkansas has become the latest medical marijuana state to exclude small business opportunities by setting outrageous fees and capital requirements for a tiny few marijuana licenses.

  The Medical Marijuana Commission decided on a $100,000 license fee for Arkansas growers of medical marijuana.

  The fee is on top of the $15,000 fee decided by the commission just to apply. If an applicant is rejected, half of the application fee will be refunded.

  The commissioners also decided on basic financial requirements for applicants hoping to have a cultivation facility. They voted that applicants must show proof of $1 million dollars in assets or a surety bond and must also show proof of $500,000 in cash.

What a difference one election can make.

The approval of a constitutional amendment legalizing medical marijuana and Donald Trump’s surprise White House win weren’t just two of the biggest political stories in Arkansas. They also upended the agenda for the upcoming legislative session and are likely to dominate Arkansas’ politics in 2017.

From establishing the first medical pot program in the Bible Belt to the future of a hybrid Medicaid expansion program covering thousands, the state faces plenty of questions in the new year.

Here’s a look at some of the issues and challenges to face the state in the next year:

Medical marijuana

ArcView Market Research released their annual cannabis market summary, and the numbers are staggering for the legal marijuana industry. In their 4th edition of The State of Legal Marijuana Markets they report that an amazing 30% growth rate occurred in the industry, which makes it the fastest growing industry in the country by far. The pace is even greater than the dot-com era, which grew at only a 22% rate.

As voters legalize weed across the country, doctors groups still voice serious doubts about its medical value.

Voters in three states approved new medical marijuana initiatives on election day, and the majority of Americans now live in states where pot has been legalized in some form. But despite the growing public acceptance of medical marijuana laws, one group remains notably skeptical: doctors.

Arkansas political leaders on Wednesday named five people to the state Medical Marijuana Commission, setting up a panel that will adopt policies and regulations that each of the elected officials opposed when ballot issues were considered at the polls last month.

“We were rather vocal in our opposition to the amendment, but the people spoke and it is our responsibility to take the steps necessary to implement in a fair and responsible way the amendment that was passed by the people of Arkansas,” Gov. Asa Hutchinson said.

Although voters in Arkansas recently approved an initiative to legalize marijuana for medicinal use, it could be longer than originally anticipated before patients are able to take advantage of the program.

That’s because legislation has been introduced in the Arkansas House that could end up preventing the state’s new medical marijuana program from being implemented in a timely manner.

Elected officials try to undo the one bright spot of November 8th.

Political leaders in several states are threatening to thwart the implementation of voter-approved initiatives specific to the regulation of marijuana.

MA voters have approved the legalization of recreational marijuana, making it the first state on the east coast to do so. As of this morning in ME, the "yes" vote leads by less than 1 point with 98% of precincts reporting.

Kevin Sabet, an ex-presidential drug policy adviser who is now leading the national anti-legalization association Smart Approaches to Marijuana, said, "We'd like [Trump] to enforce the law".