Mississippi lawmakers move to implement medical cannabis legislation |

After months of negotiations, Mississippi lawmakers reached an agreement this week to implement a new medical marijuana law in the state.

Mississippi Today reported that “legislative negotiators and leaders have agreed on a bill on medical marijuana” and that they are “expected to ask Governor Tate Reeves to convene the legislature for a special session.”

The approach to Reeves could be significant as the report found that the first-term Republican governor “has sole power to convene lawmakers in a special session and to set the date and parameters of a special session”.

“Although Legislative leaders have shown interest in treating COVID-19 and other issues in a special session, Reeves didn’t seem ready but said he would call a session on medical marijuana, the report said.

In May, Reeves said a special session on medical marijuana treatment was “certainly an option.”

For medical cannabis advocates and potential patients for the treatment, the litigation has been a long and sometimes frustrating process.

Nearly 70 percent of Mississippi voters last year voted for an election campaign legalizing medical marijuana for a variety of qualifying conditions, including cancer, epilepsy or other seizures, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s disease, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, cachexia (weakness and waste due to chronic disease), post-traumatic stress disorder, HIV +, AIDS, chronic or debilitating pain, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS, glaucoma, arousal from dementia, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, sickle cell anemia and autism.

Under Initiative 65, qualified patients could legally own up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis.

But the new law ran into a major catch in May when the state’s Supreme Court dismissed Initiative 65, citing a strange and obscure provision in the state’s constitution. In the 6-3 decision, the majority judges held “the initiative rejected because of a strange flaw in the state constitution’s voter initiative process,” NBC News reported at the time.

“The measure passed in the 1990s required a percentage of the signatures from each of the state’s five congressional districts to vote,” NBC reported. “But, according to the judges, the state lost one of those congressional districts thanks to the 2000 US census and now has only four districts.”

Following that ruling, Mississippi lawmakers went back to the drawing board to create a new medical marijuana program that replaces Initiative 65.

Negotiations continued throughout the summer, with state lawmakers and other agencies hearing testimony from supporters and opponents of medical cannabis.

The breakthrough finally came on Thursday. Mississippi Today reported that some legislative leaders “released some details of the proposal – which was kept close to the vest for months – such as allowing cities and counties to opt out of growing medical marijuana or pharmacies even though there are local voters can overwrite this. “

“City councils or councilors or district regulators could refuse to grow or dispense medical marijuana within their borders within 90 days of the law being passed,” the report said. Voters in these cities and counties could force a referendum to rejoin the medical marijuana program if they collect 1,500 signatures, or 20 percent of the voters, the report said.

Other notable provisions in the draft proposal include that smokable cannabis would be allowed and that the state sales tax of seven percent would be levied on medical marijuana. But lawmakers closed the door to personal growing, and Mississippi Today reported that “outdoor growing is not allowed, nor is growing at home.”