Arkansas medical marijuana sales are down slightly year-over-year through the end of October, according to newly released state data, which shows total cannabis sales for 2024 at $227.8 million, as opposed to $234 million for the first full 10 months of 2023.

According to the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration, the state’s 37 dispensaries sold $23.9 million worth of cannabis in August, followed by $21.9 million in September and $23.4 million in October. While those figures are all up from a summer lull, the actual volume of marijuana products being purchased has increased solidly.

“While the overall spend is down this year, there is a significant year to year increase in total pounds purchased, reflecting lower prices,” Scott Hardin, spokesperson for the ADFA, said in a press release. “We will have to see two extremely strong months in November and December to surpass the 2023 sales record of $283 million.”

Dispensaries sold a combined 19,516 pounds of medical marijuana between August and October, the ADFA announced, including 6,714 pounds in August, 6,196 pounds in September and 6,606 pounds in October.

Total medical marijuana sales in Arkansas have topped $1.2 billion thus far since the market launched in 2019, Hardin said.

The Arkansas cannabis market had a chance to expand even more this year through a proposed ballot measure, but that initiative was nullified even though it appeared on the November ballot, due to a state Supreme Court ruling last month which found that the ballot measure name and title were misleading.

Election day is just a month away, and this year millions of voters will decide the fates of at least seven pro-cannabis and psychedelic ballot measures in states across the nation.

Here’s a quick look at the measures up for consideration and what the various initiatives would do.

Arkansas

Issue 3, as it’s formally known in Arkansas, is one of the few proposed ballot measures still up in the air due to a legal battle between supporters and the secretary of state over how many signatures were submitted to get the question before voters.

The most recent development was just last week, when the state Supreme Court ordered the secretary of state to finish counting roughly 18,000 additional signatures that were disqualified by what the campaign called an “arbitrary” technicality. It’s not yet clear who will win out in that battle.

If ultimately successful, Issue 3 would expand the state’s existing medical marijuana program, making it easier for more patients to obtain recommendations and purchase legal cannabis. It would also legalize home cultivation.

Florida

Amendment 3, which has been primarily bankrolled by multistate operator Trulieve Cannabis Corp. (CSE: TRUL) (OTCQX: TCNNF), would legalize recreational marijuana in Florida. The amendment has one of the highest bars to clear, needing at least 60% of voter support to win, because it’s an amendment to the state constitution.

The ballot question has divided the Republican Party. Gov. Ron DeSantis has been a vocal opponent, but former President Donald Trump has thrown his support behind the measure.

If approved, the amendment would legalize the purchase and possession of cannabis for anyone 21 and over, but home cultivation would remain prohibited. The amendment would also allow lawmakers to authorize more cannabis business permits, but the existing 26 licensed medical marijuana companies would get first crack at recreational sales.

Massachusetts

Question 4 in Massachusetts could make the state the third in the nation to legalize some psychedelic drugs, following Oregon and Colorado.

If approved, the initiative would legalize personal possession and consumption of psilocybin, psilocin, mescaline, ibogaine and dimethyltryptamine (DMT). Large-scale commercial production and sales would remain prohibited, however, and the only sales would be permitted strictly at licensed health care facilities, which would also oversee patient use of the drugs.

Home cultivation of some psychedelics, such as magic mushrooms, would also be allowed starting in December. The larger health care rollout would be phased in over multiple years and wouldn’t be complete until 2028 at the earliest.

Nebraska

Nebraska voters have a pair of questions related to medical marijuana: Initiative 437, which would legalize medical possession and use of cannabis, and Initiative 438, which would set up a new regulatory structure for private companies.

The initiatives may still get yanked off the ballot before Election Day, however, due to an ongoing investigation by the state attorney general’s office into possible signature-gathering fraud.

If the measures remain and are approved, they would establish yet another state cannabis market in one of a few remaining states with essentially zero legal marijuana. Similar ballot measures in the state failed to qualify for the ballot in 2020 and 2022.

North Dakota

Measure 5 would legalize recreational marijuana in North Dakota. Voters rejected similar measures at the ballot box in 2018 and 2022, but the state did adopt medical cannabis in 2016.

If approved, the state would be required to issue industry regulations by October of next year for up to seven grow operations and 18 recreational retailers. It would also allow home cannabis cultivation.

The campaign behind the measure, New Economic Frontier, argued that the measure would help redirect law enforcement resources to more pressing issues, such as combatting the opioid crisis. An opposition campaign, The Brighter Future, simply pointed out the previous voter rejections.

Oregon

Measure 119 is perhaps the only tangential statewide ballot measure related to the cannabis or psychedelics industries that would not legalize any new substance. Rather it is aimed at making it easier for workers in the existing marijuana trade in Oregon to join labor unions.

If approved, the new law would require cannabis retailers and processors – but not farmers – to submit signed labor peace agreements to the state as evidence that they’re remaining neutral when workers debate whether to join a labor union.

The initiative has the backing of the United Food and Commercial Workers, which has been organizing marijuana industry employees for years.

South Dakota

Initiated Measure 29 would legalize recreational marijuana in South Dakota, another state that’s on its third attempt to do so.

Voters first approved adult-use cannabis in 2020, the same year voters approved medical marijuana legalization, but it was struck down by the courts after a challenge from Gov. Kristi Noem and other opponents. A second attempt in 2022 fell short at the ballot box.

If activists are successful this time around, the measure would broadly legalize adult-use cannabis and home cultivation, but most regulatory and industry details would be left to the legislature to determine,  such as license caps and marijuana product tax rates.