Higdon Ferry Cannabis Guide: Hot Springs, Arkansas

This is a resort town built on water. The thermal springs made it a federal reservation before Arkansas was a state, Bathhouse Row still fronts Central Avenue, and Oaklawn's thoroughbred meet plus its casino bring in crowds from three states. Lake Hamilton and Lake Ouachita surround the city with second homes and retirees, which gives Garland County an older population profile than most of Arkansas.

Cannabis history here is short but distinct: the first legal sale in the entire state happened in this city on May 10, 2019, at the counter now called Suite 443, and a second store opened days after it. Seven years later, Suite 443 still holds second place statewide by sales share, taking 8.02 percent of Arkansas dispensary revenue in the first half of 2026 despite serving a metro far smaller than Little Rock's.

The two stores sit on opposite sides of the city. Suite 443 is out Malvern Avenue on the southeast approach, in the commercial band that carries traffic from Interstate 30 and Malvern. Green Springs Medical is at 309 Seneca Street, off Golf Links Road on the north side closer to the older neighborhoods. Neither one is downtown, which matters because downtown is largely federal park land, where cannabis stays illegal no matter what card a visitor holds. Patients from Hot Springs Village, Malvern, Benton and the lake communities all shop at these two counters.

Arkansas legalized medical cannabis when voters approved Amendment 98 in November 2016, and the first legal sale in the state happened in Hot Springs on May 10, 2019. Three agencies split the work: the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Commission, housed inside the Department of Finance and Administration, awards cultivation and dispensary licenses; the Alcoholic Beverage Control Division enforces the rules and registers the agents who work behind the counter; and the Department of Health runs the patient registry and issues the cards.

The retail footprint is capped by the amendment itself at forty dispensary licenses and eight cultivation licenses. The state's own fiscal 2025 report counted thirty-seven licensed dispensaries with thirty-six of them in operation, and the DFA counted thirty-six licensed through June 2026, down from thirty-seven a year earlier, with a Texarkana license still on the books whose location has closed. Patients bought $140.3 million worth of product in the first half of 2026, down 2.6 percent year over year, on an average purchase of $75.14. Active patient cards kept climbing anyway, reaching 119,074 in July 2026.

At the register the bill carries three layers of tax: the general state sales rate of 6.5 percent, a medical marijuana privilege charge of 4 percent, and whatever local rate the city and county set, which usually totals somewhere between 11 and 13 percent. Cards cost $50 through the Department of Health, run up to a year, and require a written certification from an Arkansas-licensed physician.

Two things changed the ground under this program recently. The Eighth Circuit cleared the way for Arkansas to enforce its intoxicating-hemp ban in June 2025, which pulled delta-8 gummies and hemp THC vapes off gas station shelves and pushed those buyers toward licensed dispensaries. Then in December 2025 the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled that the General Assembly can amend a voter-approved constitutional amendment, which means the rules governing Amendment 98 can now be rewritten in the Capitol rather than at the ballot box.

Arkansas grows what Arkansas sells. Amendment 98 caps cultivation at eight licensed facilities, so nearly every jar, cart and gummy on a state menu traces back to one of them, and vertically integrated retail is common: The Source in Rogers grows, extracts and cooks under the same roof as its dispensary, and Good Day Farm supplies its own Little Rock, Hensley, Texarkana and Van Buren counters. Ask which cultivator packaged a batch and when it was packaged, because harvest date moves quality more than brand name does in a market this small. Every product sold in a licensed dispensary is tested and labeled; anything sold outside one, including hemp THC gummies, is illegal under Act 629 and Act 934.

Sales dipped 2.6 percent in the first half of 2026 while patient counts rose 7.7 percent, which tells you patients are shopping the same market more carefully rather than leaving it. Discounting is now constant, and the DFA's five biggest sellers through June 2026 sat in Sherwood, Hot Springs, Jonesboro, Conway and Alexander rather than in Northwest Arkansas. The hemp ban taking effect in mid-2025 sent former gas-station delta-8 buyers toward licensed counters. The bigger open question is legal, not commercial: after the December 2025 Supreme Court ruling, the legislature can now amend Amendment 98 directly, so the program's rules on licensing, dosing and access are all in play at the Capitol.