The Mississippi Senate approves medical marijuana despite government opposition to the permitted levels

By Nicolas Jose Rodriguez

A new medical marijuana legalization bill was tabled in Mississippi on Tuesday, and the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee approved the move on Wednesday afternoon. The bill is expected to be on the table as early as Thursday, Marijuana Moment reported. A medical cannabis program could start in 2022.

SB 2095, sponsored by Senator Kevin Blackwell (R), would allow patients with about two dozen specific medical conditions (such as cancer, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, muscular dystrophy, glaucoma, HIV, AIDS, hepatitis, Alzheimer’s, as well as chronic medical conditions) to register to qualify for medical marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation.

Registered patients would have purchase restrictions that would limit them to no more than 3.5 grams of cannabis flowers, 1 gram of concentrate, or up to 100 milligrams of THC in infused products. In that regard, Governor Tate Reeves (R) has said the program should only allow half of those amounts. The governor explained his hesitation in signing the bill on social media:

“The bill allows everyone to get 3.5 grams of marijuana a day. A simple Google search shows that the average joint contains 0.32 grams of marijuana. Hence, every single person can get enough weed to smoke 11 joints a day. Every day…. That would be 1.2 billion legal joints sold in Mississippi each year. Call me crazy, but I think that’s too broad a starting point, ”wrote Governor Reeves on Facebook.

Patients or caregivers would be prohibited from growing their own cannabis. Products from state-licensed companies, meanwhile, would be capped at 30% THC for cannabis flowers and 60% for concentrates.

This article originally appeared on Benzinga and was republished with permission.