Arkansas Laws and Programs

The rural nature of Arkansas and a high rate of poverty (17.9 percent of residents lived below the poverty line in 2004, the fourth-highest proportion in the country) make it vulnerable to several major drug problems, including local cultivation of marijuana, transportation of marijuana and cocaine on interstate highways, and local production of methamphetamine. In 2006 about 944 kilograms of marijuana were seized by federal authorities in Arkansas and 13,501 cultivated marijuana plants were destroyed. The second most common drug seized was cocaine (226.4 kilograms). In 2006 there were 407 meth lab incidents and nearly one-third of federal drug offenses involved methamphetamine.