Law Mississippi

[momofthegoons]

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Mississippi House Replaces Senate’s Alternate Medical Marijuana Program With What Voters Originally Approved​

“The people have spoken, with a constitutional amendment about medical marijuana, and that bill went against the spirit of what the people decided.”

By Geoff Pender, Mississippi Today

A House panel on Tuesday gutted a Senate medical marijuana proposal and inserted the medical marijuana language voters passed as a constitutional amendment in November.

“I’m interested in seeing that bill die—I think it just did die,” said Rep. Robert Johnson III, House minority leader. “The people have spoken, with a constitutional amendment about medical marijuana, and that bill went against the spirit of what the people decided.”

Johnson made those statements about Senate Bill 2765 on Tuesday afternoon, when it appeared the bill had died, with no Ways and Means Committee meeting called on the floor for the afternoon to take the bill up. Later, Ways and Means had a meeting and took the bill up, then struck the Senate language and inserted Initiative 65. It now goes to the full House and if passed, back to the Senate in its amended form.

Rep. Joel Bomgar, R-Madison, who helped lead, and fund, the successful citizen initiative to enshrine medical marijuana use in the state constitution, offered the amendment to replace the Senate bill language with Initiative 65’s language.

Senate Bill 2765 was originally a legislative alternative to the medical marijuana program voters overwhelmingly approved in November with Ballot Initiative 65, which is now being challenged in the state Supreme Court. The bill passed the Senate only after much wrangling and a “do-over” vote in the wee hours of the morning in mid-February. It was initially drafted to create its own medical marijuana program, regardless of whether the court upholds the voter-passed program. But it was amended during heated Senate debate to take effect only if the courts strike down the voter-passed program.

The legislative move had many Initiative 65 supporters crying foul, claiming the Legislature was trying to usurp the will of the voters. After lawmakers failed for years to approve use of medical marijuana despite a groundswell of public support, voters took matters in hand in November with Initiative 65.

Jessica Rice, director of the Mississippi Cannabis Trade Association was among many watching the legislative alternative marijuana bill with skepticism and trepidation. She questioned whether lawmakers were truly trying to provide a backstop in case courts strike down Initiative 65. If so, she said, they would codify Initiative 65 — as the House panel did — not come up with a proposal with higher taxes and more or different regulations as in the Senate version.

“Our position is that the people have already had an option to vote on a legislative created program, and they chose not to,” Rice said last week. “Just because this is up before the Supreme Court does not give the Legislature a second bite at the apple … I think this is about control — they want to be able to be in control of the program, but people have already rejected that.”

But many state leaders and lawmakers had lamented that Initiative 65 was drafted to favor the marijuana industry and is just short of legalized recreational use. It puts the Mississippi State Department of Health in charge of the program, with no oversight by elected officials. It also prevents standard taxation of the marijuana, and any fees collected by the health department can only be used to run and expand the marijuana program, not go into state taxpayer coffers. The measure allows little regulation by local governments, no limits on the number of dispensaries and otherwise leaves many specifics … unspecified.

The Senate proposal would have taxed medical marijuana, with a 4 percent excise at cultivation, and with a 7 percent sales tax patients would pay, which was originally 10 percent in earlier drafts of the bill. Most of the taxes collected would have gone to education, including early learning and college scholarships. And the Departments of Agriculture and Revenue would be in charge.

The bill also would have imposed large licensing fees on growers and dispensary shop owners. Originally, those fees would have been $100,000 for growers and $20,000 for dispensaries. Those were reduced to $15,000 and $5,000, respectively, on Thursday night. Other changes were made in an effort to assuage those who believed such fees would keep small businesses and farms out of the game.

The bill barely gained the three-fifths vote it needed to pass the Senate. It faced a Tuesday deadline for the Ways and Means Committee to pass it on to the full House. Ways and Means Chairman Trey Lamar had said late Tuesday he was still undecided on what to do with the bill.

He noted the Ways and Means meeting late Tuesday was not announced on the House floor, as is standard procedure.

“No, it wasn’t announced,” Lamar said. “We just added it to the schedule. I know that’s not the usual way we do it, but I wasn’t there to announce it on the floor.”

This left many believing the bill had died on deadline without a vote Tuesday—apparently, including House Speaker Philip Gunn.

Gunn said: “The issue, or the challenge here is that the people voted on it in November, and they spoke pretty strongly… I know there is a lawsuit, but that can be dealt with later if we need to. If the Supreme Court throws out that vote, then the Legislature can come back and deal with it. If they uphold it, well then I don’t know what the Legislature would have to do with it then.”

This story was first published by Mississippi Today.

 

[momofthegoons]

Mississippi House Kills Alternate Medical Marijuana Proposal, But Senate Makes Late Attempt To Revive It​

Whether Mississippi will have a medical cannabis program will rest with the state Supreme Court, which is weighing a challenge to the voter-approved ballot measure, if the Senate’s effort fails.

By Geoff Pender, Mississippi Today

After bitter debate—and accusations of lawmakers lying and profiteering—the state House killed a Senate bill aimed at creating a legislative alternative to the Mississippi medical marijuana program voters overwhelmingly added to the state constitution in November.

But the Senate on Wednesday evening tried a hail Mary on the marijuana bill. Lawmakers inserted the Senate measure’s language into a House bill dealing with research on cannabidiol, or CBD oil, for patients with seizures or other illness, known as “Harper Grace’s Law.” The amended bill — which could revive the Senate’s medical marijuana proposal—passed 29-19, with Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann overruling objections that the amendment improperly altered an unrelated bill.

Sen. Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven, author of the medical marijuana bill, offered the amendment as a chance to “give (the House) a second bite at the apple.”

If the House doesn’t go for the last-ditch effort, the question of whether Mississippi will have a medical marijuana program anytime soon rests with the Supreme Court, which is set to hear next month a challenge to the voter-passed Initiative 65 marijuana program.

After multiple parliamentary challenges to Senate Bill 2765 ground business to a halt in the House on Wednesday—the deadline for its passage by that chamber—Ways and Means Chairman Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, motioned the bill to be “laid on the table.” With the House later adjourning for the day, this killed the measure. Many lawmakers applauded when Lamar made the motion. The bill had brought hours of heated debate in the Senate, and its passage in the House, facing bipartisan opposition, was in doubt even after House amendments.

Before the bill was killed, Rep. Joel Bomgar, R-Madison, an ardent supporter and financial backer of Initiative 65, accused Lamar of running “a ruse” and said the bill was aimed at “screwing over everybody who voted for Initiative 65.” Bomgar in committee last week had successfully gutted the Senate bill with an amendment to substitute the language voters passed with Initiative 65. But he claimed this week that his amendment was improperly altered before the bill came to the floor and on Wednesday claimed Lamar planned to revert back to the Senate version all along after Lamar tried to offer a new amendment.

“The people have spoken on this,” Bomgar said. “The Supreme Court will rule in a month. There’s no reason for this [bill]… Nobody believes this will turn into anything approaching Initiative 65.”

Lamar responded: “The gentleman just lied to everybody in this body.” He said he was trying to match the bill’s language as close as possible to Initiative 65 and keep the measure alive to have further negotiations with the Senate.

“This baby has fallen in my lap, and I’m just rocking it,” Lamar said. After multiple parliamentary challenges on the bill and amendments, Lamar made the motion that killed the measure.

Rep. Jill Ford, R-Madison, a vocal opponent of Initiative 65, during floor debate called for an Ethics Committee investigation into whether any House members have improper financial interests in the potential medical marijuana industry. She was told she would have to file such a request in writing, which she later did, citing legislative rules and a provision in the state constitution that elected officials cannot personally benefit from their official actions. Ford would not say at whom her claims were aimed.

“I’d rather not say,” Ford said. “There are possibly people in here who could financially benefit, and I was to make sure we as a body are following the rules and law when we’re voting on bills and amendments.”

Bomgar declined comment or interview this week, as he has done for about a year.

Senate Bill 2765 was originally a legislative alternative to the medical marijuana program voters overwhelmingly approved in November with Ballot Initiative 65, which is now being challenged in the state Supreme Court. The bill passed the Senate only after much wrangling and a “do-over” vote in the wee hours of the morning in mid-February. It was initially drafted to create its own medical marijuana program, regardless of whether the court upholds the voter-passed program. But it was amended during heated Senate debate to take effect only if the courts strike down the voter-passed program.

The legislative move had many Initiative 65 supporters crying foul, claiming the Legislature was trying to usurp the will of the voters. After lawmakers failed for years to approve use of medical marijuana despite a groundswell of public support, voters took matters in hand in November with Initiative 65.

A key difference between Initiative 65 and the Senate’s proposal is that under the voter-passed initiative, the Legislature cannot tax marijuana sales, nor spend any money the program generates. The Senate proposal would levy taxes and fees on cultivators, dispensaries and patients that some lawmakers estimated could bring hundreds of millions of dollars into state coffers.

Hosemann on Wednesday evening said he doesn’t understand why many proponents of Initiative 65 are opposing the Senate efforts. He said if the high court strikes down Initiative 65, and the Senate backup is not passed, there will not be a state medical marijuana program in the short run. He vowed “100 percent” that the Senate plans to keep the “trigger” language in the bill, that the legislative marijuana program would be enacted only if the court strikes down the voter-approved one.

“Our senators believe that the people in Mississippi voted on medical marijuana and they deserve to have that…a backup plan,” Hosemann said. He called opposition saying lawmakers are trying to usurp the will of the voters or greatly alter what they passed, “subterfuge.”

This story was first published by Mississippi Today.

 

[momofthegoons]

Mississippi Supreme Court Hears Challenge To Medical Marijuana Measure Approved By Voters​

“I believe our justices will do what’s right an uphold the will of the voters,” one of the ballot initiative’s supporters said.

By Geoff Pender, Mississippi Today

The medical marijuana program Mississippi voters approved in November, set to begin in August, hangs in the balance with the state Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments about Initiative 65 on Wednesday.

The arguments have nothing to do with medical marijuana or the program voters enshrined in the state constitution, but on procedural issues — whether Initiative 65’s placement on the ballot through a signature petition was constitutionally proper.

Chief Justice Michael Randolph indicated the nine-judge court would issue an opinion as quickly as possible and, “I know many people are waiting on this.”

“It’s in the judges’ hands now,” said Madison Mayor Mary Hawkins Butler, who filed a Supreme Court challenge to Initiative 65 just days before voters approved it on Nov. 3. “This is one of those defining moments for our state. Maybe we can take care of other antiquated laws that are hindering our progress and our growth.”

Hawkins left the high court’s chambers without taking further media questions Wednesday.

Secretary of State Michael Watson, who took office after the November elections, said “brilliant attorneys” on each side of Butler v. Watson made compelling arguments and regardless the outcome, “we’re all friends, we’re all Mississippians and we’ll move forward.”

Butler argues that the ballot initiative language added to Section 273(3) of the state constitution in 1992 requires proponents to gather signatures evenly from five Mississippi congressional districts — with no more than 1/5, or 20% coming from any single district — to ensure geographic parity.

But Mississippi has had only four congressional districts since the 2000 Census. Butler argues it’s a “mathematical certainty” that of the nearly 106,000 certified voter signatures collected from what are now four districts to put Initiative 65 on the ballot last year, signatures from at least one of the districts surpasses 20%.

Watson argues that while a panel of federal judges ordered Mississippi to use a four-district map for congressional elections, the Legislature never adopted it in state law and “five congressional districts exist under state law and may be used for anything but congressional elections.” The old districts are still used for appointments to state agencies, boards and commissions. Watson’s lawyers from the attorney general’s office say Watson’s predecessor, now Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, properly certified Initiative 65 petition signatures using the five old districts in state law.

Lawyers on both sides argued Wednesday that “plain language” reading of the passage in the state constitution makes their case.

“(The) language is plain, and a congressional district is the area from where a member of Congress is elected,” said Kaytie M. Pickett, attorney for Butler. “We have four … Ask anybody on the street how many we have, they’ll say four … Qualified elector — those words matter, too … Someone cannot be a qualified elector of the fifth district … a district that does not exist.”

Deputy Attorney General Justin L. Matheny, representing Watson, said a plain reading of the entire ballot initiative section of the constitution makes clear voters have the right to amend the constitution at the ballot box, and the 1/5 petition signature requirement is simply to make sure they are geographically dispersed. Both stipulations were met with Initiative 65, Matheny told justices. He said the section also prohibits the Legislature from doing anything to impair voters’ rights to a ballot initiative.

Justices noted that state congressional districts have changed and will continue to change with population shifts. Matheny said this shows the intent of constitutional framers was not to have the initiative right nullified by a change in congressional districts.

“We don’t think the intent was to set up something impossible,” Matheny said.

Justice Kenny Griffis said he understood the Legislature in the 1990s was reluctant to allow voters to approve a ballot initiative process and did so “kicking and screaming.” He questioned whether some of the wording had the “intent of defeating the ability of people to change the constitution.”

Chief Justice Randolph’s questioning of Matheny was at times pointed and sharp.

“You want me to go to a statute in order to interpret the constitution?” Randolph told Matheny. “I’ve got a problem with that … The dictionary says a congressional district is a part of a state from which a member of the U.S. House of Representatives is elected … If the words are clear, everybody in this room including you agrees we have four congressional districts. Why go anywhere else? What license do we have to go past the plain language, outside of that?”

Justices Robert Chamberlin and James Maxwell II questioned Pickett why the Legislature and voters would have adopted a constitutional amendment thinking it would be subject to Census changes.

“Your position is the Legislature adopted this with the understanding it could be impossible to meet in 10 years or less?” Chamberlin said.

Maxwell said: “So if we lose a federal representative, through federal law, it means our citizens don’t have the means to change our state constitution? Somehow those two things are related?”

Justice Josiah Coleman noted the state statute with five congressional districts “has never been declared unconstitutional, we’ve never been asked to declare it so.” Pickett responded that “a statute cannot change the plain meaning of the constitution.”

Justice Dawn Beam at the outset of the hearing noted her children were watching a livestream of the proceedings, “and I want to make clear, it is totally irrelevant what this court thinks about or how we voted on Initiative 65” but the court will make its decision on constitutional issues. Medical marijuana was barely mentioned during Wednesday’s hearing.

Justices James Kitchens and Leslie King did not ask any questions of either side during Wednesday’s arguments.

Some legal and political observers have questioned whether an adverse ruling on Initiative 65 could open other ballot initiatives from the last 20 years, such as limits on eminent domain and voter ID requirements, to being challenged and overturned.

Watson said he believes that is not a concern because the “doctrine of laches” barring unreasonable delays in legal challenges would prevent such issues. He said laches should also have prevented Butler’s challenge of Initiative 65 just days before the Nov. 3 election.

But Watson said he is concerned about current and future initiatives, and noted that “three or four are to the point of gathering signatures now” amid uncertainty until, and maybe after, the court rules.

It would appear a ruling totally accepting Butler’s arguments would nullify voters’ rights to ballot initiatives until the Legislature and voters changed both the constitution and state law.

Angie Calhoun of Puckett, one of the leaders of the citizen-led drive for medical marijuana in Mississippi, attended Wednesday’s high court hearing and had signed on as an amicus, or friend of the court, on Watson’s side. Calhoun is the mother of a son who suffered medical problems she said could have been treated with marijuana. Her son, now an adult, eventually moved out of state so he could use medical marijuana.

“I believe our justices will do what’s right an uphold the will of the voters,” Calhoun said. “… I feel like our Legislature obviously has failed us.”

After lawmakers failed for years to approve use of medical marijuana despite a groundswell of public support, voters took matters in hand in November with Initiative 65. The Legislature tried this session to pass a “backstop” or alternative medical marijuana program should the Supreme Court strike down the one voters pass, but the legislation was killed after much debate. Initiative 65 supporters viewed it as a legislative move to usurp the will of voters.

This story was first published by Mississippi Today.

 

[momofthegoons]

Mississippi Cannabis Legalization Hits An Unfortunate Snag​

Due to a publishing error, the initiative for Mississippi cannabis legalization has hit a bump in the road.

Due to a publishing error, a Mississippi cannabis legalization proposal to make smokable cannabis legal wherever cigarette smoking is allowed in the state has been delayed. This unusual cannabis initiative would have been one-of-a-kind, but now, the state has a chance to push forward with full legalization and offer more opportunity for a growing industry or go backwards and not legalize at all.

Now, instead of the originally passed Initiative 65, which was approved last November by Mississippi voters, Initiative 77 would let state residents decide whether to fully legalize cannabis, including cultivation, possession, and use.

If passed, Initiative 77 would add a 7 percent sales tax to cannabis products, so that the state would be able to benefit from the increased revenue that cannabis sales can bring. And, similar to what Initiative 65 would have done, smoking cannabis would become legal in all the areas in which smoking tobacco is legal.

Where Did This Mississippi Cannabis Legalization Initiative Go Wrong?​

So, why did this happen? Apparently, the Mississippi Secretary of State’s Office claims that the initial notice about the initiative didn’t appear in as many newspapers as are required by law, due to a mistake made by the Mississippi Press Association. While the Mississippi Press Association-affiliated Mississippi Press Services did distribute the notice to newspapers, it missed five on the list, and so all the publication that was legally required didn’t end up happening.

While this error could raise eyebrows of folks skeptical that Mississippi was looking for a way out of legalizing, the Mississippi Press Association is so far accepting full responsibility.

“We will work diligently to avoid this kind of oversight in the future,” said Laye Bruce, executive director of both the Mississippi Press Association and Mississippi Press Services.

Now, in order to make sure the same thing doesn’t happen again, the secretary of state has asked that the Mississippi Press Association make sure Initiative 77 will be published in five newspapers by the approaching deadline of May 13.

Originally, voters could choose to back Initiative 65 and Initiative 65A, which were introduced as a way to push Mississippi cannabis legalization. Voters could choose one or the other, or back both. Initiative 65 would have tasked the Mississippi State Department of Health with controlling the medical cannabis program. It would have let patients with serious medical conditions access medical cannabis, as long as they got a doctor’s note and a medical card.

There was definitely some backing for the initiative, as more than 200,000 people in Mississippi signed a petition to put it on the ballot. Initiative 65A, on the other hand, would have only provided cannabis to terminally ill patients, and physicians, nurses and pharmacists would have to oversee the medicine being administered.

And, there was a lot of backlash against Initiative 65A, as many claimed it was only on the ballot to confuse voters, with the name being so similar to Initiative 65. It was also added without any additional guidance on how to begin the legalization process. Initiative 65 received more support than 65A, including from Governor Tate, who backed the idea of a more robust medical cannabis program.

Opponents of Initiative 65A argue it was only placed on the ballot to confuse voters, as it was done without many steadfast guidelines on how to begin the process of legalization.

Both initiatives included being written into the state’s constitution.

Many major figures in Mississippi came out against Initiative 65, including Governor Tate.

At the time, State Health Officer Dr. Tomas Dobbs claimed he was concerned that Initiative 65 was too lax, calling it the “Wild West” version of medical cannabis. He felt that it offered medical cannabis to “pretty much every community.”

Now, due to the publishing error, Mississippi cannabis legalization, for both medical cannabis and smoking in cigarette-friendly areas, is delayed, but voters also have another chance to try and legalize cannabis in full, by backing Initiative 77. However, if it doesn’t gain enough support, there is a chance that no cannabis legislation will move forward in Mississippi

 

[Baron23]

Secretary of State’s Office claims that the initial notice about the initiative didn’t appear in as many newspapers as are required by law

Just like in Utah and FL they are nitpicking process to overturn the voters have expressed will.

Fuck these assholes.....we will win eventually.

 

[momofthegoons]

Mississippi Supreme Court Overturns Medical Marijuana Legalization Ballot That Voters Approved​

A voter-approved initiative to legalize medical marijuana in Mississippi has been overturned by the state Supreme Court.

On Friday, the court ruled in favor of a Mississippi mayor who filed a legal challenge against the 2020 measure, nullifying its certification by the Secretary of State. The lawsuit was unrelated to the merits of the reform proposal itself, but plaintiffs argued that the constitutional amendment violated procedural rules for placing measures on the ballot.

While the court acknowledged that a “strong, if not overwhelming, majority of voters of Mississippi approved Initiative 65” to legalize medical cannabis in the state, Madison Mayor Mary Hawkins Butler’s (R) petition was valid for statutory reasons.

Madison’s challenge cites a state law stipulating that “signatures of the qualified electors from any congressional district shall not exceed one-fifth (1/5) of the total number of signatures required to qualify an initiative petition for placement upon the ballot.” But that policy went into effect when Mississippi had five congressional districts, and that’s since been reduced to four, making it mathematically impossible to adhere to.

The secretary of state and other officials pushed back against the lawsuit and argued that a plain reading of the state Constitution makes it clear that the intention of the district-based requirement was to ensure that signatures were collected in a geographically dispersed manner—and the result of the campaign met that standard.

But in the court’s 6-3 ruling released on Friday, the justices said that their hands were tied. The legislature or administration might be able to fix the procedural ballot issue, but it had to follow the letter of the law.

“We find ourselves presented with the question squarely before us and nowhere to turn but to its answer,” the decision states. “Remaining mindful of both the November 3, 2020 election results and the clear language in section 273 seeking to preserve the right of the people to enact changes to their Constitution, we nonetheless must hold that the text of section 273 fails to account for the possibility that has become reality in Mississippi.”

In sum, a Census-driven change in the number of congressional districts in Mississippi “did, indeed, break section 273 so that, absent amendment, it no longer functions,” meaning there’s no legal way to pass a constitutional ballot initiative in the state.

“Whether with intent, by oversight, or for some other reason, the drafters of section 273(3) wrote a ballot-initiative process that cannot work in a world where Mississippi has fewer than five representatives in Congress. To work in today’s reality, it will need amending—something that lies beyond the power of the Supreme Court.”

“We grant the petition, reverse the Secretary of State’s certification of Initiative 65, and hold that any subsequent proceedings on it are void,” the court ruled.

One justice who dissented said that the district-based requirement is arbitrary as it concerns Mississippi elections. While the federal government defines the state as having four congressional districts, the state Constitution “lays out the five districts,” and “there have been zero changes to the five districts” as far as the state’s laws are concerned.

In any case, this marks a major defeat for cannabis reform activists in the state who collected more than 214,000 signatures for their initiative. Sixty-eight percent of voters approved a general ballot question on whether to allow medical cannabis, and 74 percent signed off on advocates’ specific measure in a separate question.

“The Mississippi Supreme Court just overturned the will of the people of Mississippi,” Ken Newburger, executive director for the Mississippi Medical Marijuana Association, said in a press release. “Patients will now continue the suffering that so many Mississippians voted to end. The Court ignored existing case law and prior decisions. Their reasoning ignores the intent of the constitution and takes away people’s constitutional right.”

“It’s a sad day for Mississippi when the Supreme Court communicates to a vast majority of the voters that their vote doesn’t matter,” he said.



Under the voter-approved initiative, patients with debilitating medical issues would have been allowed to legally obtain marijuana after getting a doctor’s recommendation. The proposal included 22 qualifying conditions such as cancer, chronic pain and post-traumatic stress disorder, and patients would have been able to possess up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana per 14-day period.

There was an attempt in the legislature to pass a bill to legalize medical marijuana in the event that the court overruled the voter-approved initiative, but it failed to be enacted by the session’s end.

The Mississippi State Department of Health told WJTV that it will cease work on developing medical cannabis regulations in light of the court ruling.

“However, the agency has certainly learned a lot in the process of putting together a successful medical marijuana program, and we stand ready to help the legislature if it creates a statutory program,” Liz Sharlot, director of the Office of Communications for the department, said.

This is the latest state Supreme Court setback to affect cannabis reform efforts.

Last month, the Florida Supreme Court dealt a critical blow to marijuana activists working to legalize marijuana in the state—killing an initiative that hundreds of thousands of voters have already signed and forcing them to start all over again if they want to make the 2022 ballot.

While a Nebraska campaign collected enough signatures to qualify a reform initiative in 2020, the state Supreme Court shut it down following a legal challenge. It determined that the measure violated the state’s single-subject rule, much to the disappointment of advocates.

In South Dakota, the fate of an adult-use legalization initiative that voters approved last November is also in the hands of the state’s Supreme Court, where a sheriff is challenging its constitutionality based on a single subject rule as well.

Opponents to a Montana marijuana legalization measure that was approved by voters have also filed lawsuits contesting the voter-approved initiative for procedural reasons, arguing that its allocation of revenue violates the state Constitution. While the state Supreme Court declined to hear the case last year, it did not rule on the merits and left the door open to pursuing the case in district and appeals court, which plaintiffs then pursued.

Read the Mississippi Supreme Court ruling on the medical cannabis initiative by following title link and scrolling to the bottom of the article.

 

[momofthegoons]

Mississippi Lawmakers Float Special Session To Restore Medical Marijuana Following Supreme Court Ruling​

Without a special session, the earliest that the Legislature could enact a medical marijuana program would be in January when the 2022 session begins.

By Bobby Harrison and Geoff Pender, Mississippi Today

A special legislative session is being discussed by political leaders in the wake of last week’s explosive ruling by the Mississippi Supreme Court striking down both the state’s new medical marijuana program and the entire initiative process where citizens can gather signatures to place issues on the ballot for voters to decide.

Sources close to the issue said that lawmakers have broached the issue of a special session with Gov. Tate Reeves’s (R) office.

Without a special session, the earliest that the Legislature could enact a medical marijuana program would be in January when the 2022 session begins. And it would take even longer to re-instate the initiative process since it would require a two-thirds vote of both chambers of the Legislature and then approval by voters presumably during the November 2022 general election.

During a special session, legislators could have an opportunity to create a medical marijuana program and perhaps to fix the language in the state’s initiative process that resulted in last week’s Supreme Court ruling.

House Speaker Philip Gunn (R) says he supports Reeves calling a special session to allow legislators to reinstate the state’s initiative process.

“We 100% believe in the right of the people to use the initiative and referendum process to express their views on public policy,” Gunn said in a statement. “If the legislature does not act on an issue that the people of Mississippi want, then the people need a mechanism to change the law. I support the governor calling us into a special session to protect this important right of the people.”

Efforts to garner comments from Reeves and Lt. Gov Delbert Hosemann (R), who presides over the Senate, have been unsuccessful thus far. On the day of the Supreme Court ruling, Bailey Martin, a spokesperson for Reeves, told the Daily Journal in Tupelo, “Like most Mississippians, Gov. Reeves is interested and intrigued by the Supreme Court’s decision on the recent ballot initiative. He and his team are currently digesting the Court’s 58-page opinion and will make further comment once that analysis is complete.”

Senate President Pro Tem Dean Kirby, (R), said he has not heard discussions about a special session, but said, “I would not be opposed to a special session” to take up the issue of medical marijuana. He pointed out the Senate passed a bill earlier this year in the 2021 session that would have put in place a medical marijuana program if the Supreme Court struck down the medical marijuana initiative. The House did not take up the Senate proposal, opting to wait for the Supreme Court ruling.

Kirby said he had not studied the issue of whether there should be an effort in special session to take up fixing the entire initiative process.

Rep. Robert Johnson, (D), the House minority leader, who was critical of last week’s Supreme Court ruling, said he would support a special session to take up both issues.

In a 6-3 ruling last week, the Mississippi Supreme Court struck down the medical marijuana initiative that was approved overwhelmingly by voters in November and in the process voided the state’s initiative that has been in effect since 1992.

In the process of voiding the process, six initiatives that were at varying stages of trying to garner the required number of signatures were killed. Those efforts were:

• Expanding Medicaid.
• Enacting early voting.
• Enacting term limits.
• Legalizing recreational marijuana.
• Giving voters the opportunity to restore the old flag that contained the Confederate battle emblem in its design.
• Replacing the 1890 flag that contained the Confederate battle emblem. That already has been done by the Legislature.

The Supreme Court ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by the city of Madison and its mayor, Mary Hawkins Butler. The lawsuit alleged the initiative process should be voided because the Constitution requires the signatures to be gathered equally from five congressional districts as they were configured in 1990. In 2000, the state lost a U.S. House seat based on U.S. Census data, rendering it impossible to gather the signatures as mandated in the Constitution, the lawsuit argued.

The state’s highest court agreed.

Also at issue is two initiatives that passed in 2011 where the signatures were gathered from the original five congressional districts and whether they will be efforts to challenge those proposals. Those initiatives enacted a requirement to have a government-issued photo ID to vote and a prohibition on the government taking private land for the use of another private entity. After voters approved placing the voter identification issue in the Constitution, it also was approved as general law by the Legislature. So, if the voter ID initiative is struck down, it is not clear how it would impact the general law.

When asked if the Southern Poverty Law Center might challenge the voter ID initiative based on the Supreme Court ruling, Brandon Jones, policy director with the group, said “Like a lot of other folks, we are in the very early states of considering options for voters and the issues impacted by last week’s ruling. We haven’t made any decision yet.”

SPLC also would have been heavily involved in the effort to pass a Medicaid expansion initiative had it not be halted by the Supreme Court ruling.

This story was first published by Mississippi Today.

 

[momofthegoons]

Mississippi Voters Want To Impeach Justices Who Overturned Medical Marijuana, Poll Shows​

Voters also want lawmakers to hold a special session to pass new medical cannabis legislation that mirrors the now-invalidated ballot measure, the survey found.

By Bobby Harrison, Mississippi Today

A strong majority oppose last week’s state Supreme Court decision striking down both a voter initiative that approved medical marijuana and the entire process that Mississippians can gather signatures to place an issue on the ballot for voters to decide.

The poll also found strong support for Gov. Tate Reeves calling a special session to give legislators the opportunity to reverse the actions of the Supreme Court. While Reeves has not called a special session, a diverse set of politicians ranging from Republicans Speaker Philip Gunn and Secretary of State Michael Watson to Democratic Northern District Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley to House Democratic Leader Robert Johnson have voiced support for one. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who presides over the Senate, has not commented on whether he supports a special session.



The Supreme Court took the rare step of releasing the controversial decision on Friday afternoon. The poll was conducted quickly after that by Mississippi-based Chism Strategies. Chism had done work for supporters of the medical marijuana initiative that was approved by voters this past November.

The poll found almost 60.9 percent of respondents opposed the Supreme Court decision while 22.3 percent support it. In addition, 59.6 percent support the governor calling a special session on medical marijuana while 20.2 percent oppose such an effort.

Of the 905 Mississippians polled, 69.3 percent voted in favor of medical marijuana this past November while 25.2 percent opposed the initiative. On the November ballot, there were two medical marijuana initiatives: the citizen-sponsored proposal and a legislative alternative. The first question on the ballot asked voters whether they approved either. In November, 68.5 percent of voters said they did support one of the two, correlating closely to the 69.2 percent in the poll saying they voted in favor of medical marijuana.



The poll was of landline and cell phone users and was weighted to reflect likely 2022 general election results, meaning a majority of respondents normally vote Republican. The poll had a margin of error 3.26 percent.

Brad Chism of Chism Strategies said he was surprised how many Mississippians knew about the Supreme Court ruling.

“It is a brush fire,” Chism said. “It crosses party lines… People are mad the court would do what they did.”

The poll found that almost 52 percent are “somewhat” or “much” less likely to vote for a legislator who opposed medical marijuana, while just under 30 percent were “much” or “somewhat” more likely to support a candidate opposing the legalization of medical marijuana.



The poll also found 69.7 percent supported the Legislature approving a medical marijuana program that matches the one approved by voters in November. A plurality—45 percent to 27.1 percent—support the impeachment of the Supreme Court justices who supported the ruling.

The Supreme Court ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by the city of Madison and its mayor, Mary Hawkins Butler. The lawsuit alleged the initiative process should be voided because the Constitution requires the signatures to be gathered equally from five congressional districts as they were configured in 1990. In 2000, the state lost a U.S. House seat based on U.S. Census data, rendering it impossible to gather the signatures as mandated in the Constitution, the lawsuit argued.

This story was first published by Mississippi Today.

 

[Baron23]

Make these self-entitled, anti-democratic forces in MS government pay at the next election.

Mississippi Voters Rebel Against Medical Marijuana Madness​

That Mississippi’s medical cannabis program appears to have been sunk just prior to it starting hasn’t sat well with the state’s voters.
As we reported earlier this week, a voter-supported initiative to amend the state’s constitution to allow qualified patients with debilitating medical conditions to use medical marijuana has been cancelled due to a technicality with more wide-ranging ramifications.



Chism Strategies has carried out a poll since, gauging the mood of 905 Mississippi voters on the decision by the Mississippi Supreme Court to invalidate Initiative 65.
Here’s some of what it found.

• Just 22% agreed with the Supreme Court decision – 60.9% disagreed and 16.8% were unsure.
• 60% were in favour of a special legislative session to address the issue.
• 70% wanted the legislature to pass a medical marijuana law with wording exactly matching the amendment approved by voters last November.
• A majority of voters are more likely to oppose state legislators at the ballot box who oppose medical marijuana.
• 45% would support impeachment of a State Supreme Court Judge who voted to overturn the vote that approved medical marijuana.
• 27.1% would oppose impeachment and 27.9% were unsure

The calls for impeachment may be a little rough – the Justices appeared to make their decision grudgingly and their personal views had to be put inside – this was purely a matter of law, as flawed as it was.
69.3% of those polled had voted in support of the citizen-sponsored constitutional amendment last November. The ballot initiative itself saw 74% of voters supporting it.
53.4% of those surveyed supported Republican Tate Reeve in the 2019 statewide election – and Governor Reeve didn’t support the ballot initiative.
Governor Reeve has the authority to call a special session of the legislature so lawmakers can thrash out legislation that would address the issue, as the Mississippi Supreme Court Justices state there is nothing further that can be done at their end of things.
Given the Governor’s previous views on the initiative, that may be unlikely – but ignoring the will of the people would be a dicey move and a number of politicians in the state have already called for such a session.
The full survey report can be viewed here.

 

[bulllee]

NEWS BRIEF

Mississippi legislative group reaches agreement on medical marijuana plan​

Published 5 hours ago



A Mississippi legislative group agreed on a proposed medical marijuana program that would be more limited than what voters overwhelmingly approved at the ballot box last November.
The proposed measure, for example, would enable local governments to opt out of cultivation, processing and retail sales in their jurisdictions, according to the Associated Press.

But residents could petition for an election to reverse that decision.
In addition, cultivation would be required to be indoors, the AP reported.
The next step is for the state’s legislative leaders to ask Republican Gov. Tate Reeves to call a special session so lawmakers can pass the proposed measure into law.
The lead negotiators for the state House and Senate, according to the Associated Press, said the bill would require a three-fifths majority to pass because tax issues are involved, but they believe there are enough votes for approval.
The agreement on a proposed measure comes four months after the state Supreme Court struck down the MMJ ballot initiative, derailing what was expected to be a large, business-friendly MMJ market in the Deep South.
The loss was believed to be the first time an MMJ initiative has been overturned after residents approved it at the ballot box.
A majority of the Supreme Court justices ruled the initiative was invalid because it didn’t meet the state’s requirement that 20% of the signatures come from each of five congressional districts.
The outdated requirement was impossible to meet because Mississippi lost a congressional district after the 2000 Census.
The 2021 MJBizFactbook had projected that a Mississippi medical cannabis industry based on the citizen-backed initiative would have generated $265 million in sales in the first full year and $800 million annually by the fourth year.

 

[bulllee]

NEWS BRIEF

Mississippi lawmakers request special session to legalize medical marijuana​

Published 3 hours ago



Mississippi’s legislative leaders asked Gov. Tate Reeves to call a special session to consider a medical marijuana measure and tackle other legislative issues.

The Associated Press reported Friday that the Republican governor’s spokeswoman, Bailey Martin, said lawmakers and the governor’s staff discussed the possibility of a special session this fall, “and we are looking forward to engaging further.”
Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and House Speaker Philip Gunn, both Republicans, told reporters the special session could be completed in as little as one day.
A Mississippi legislative group last week agreed on a proposed medical marijuana program, four months after the state Supreme Court voided a business friendly, voter-approved MMJ ballot initiative.
The legislative proposal is more limited than the citizen initiative, which the 2021 MJBizFactbook had projected would have generated $265 million in sales in the first full year of the program and $800 million annually by the fourth year.
For example, the legislative proposal would enable local governments to opt out of the program in their jurisdictions, according to the Associated Press.
The bill also reportedly would require a three-fifths majority to pass, but legislative leaders said they believe there are enough votes for approval.

 

[momofthegoons]

​

Mississippi Governor Says Medical Marijuana Bill Needs Changes Before Special Session Is Called​

“We are a long way towards getting a final agreement, but not all the way there yet.”

By Geoff Pender, Mississippi Today

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R) on Wednesday said he’ll call lawmakers into special session on medical marijuana legislation “sooner rather than later,” but would not speculate a date or whether he’ll also let legislators tackle pandemic pay for nurses or other COVID-19 measures they’re proposing.

Reeves said there are still details—such as funding for a medical marijuana program—to be worked out, and indicated a session would be in coming weeks, but not this week as lawmakers had requested.

“There is no update on exactly when, but I do anticipate we are going to have one sooner rather than later,” Reeves said at a press conference on workforce training on Wednesday. He said he spoke on Monday with Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann (R) and House Speaker Philip Gunn (R).

“We are a long way towards getting a final agreement, but not all the way there yet,” Reeves said. “At this point it’s jut a matter of working out the final details…things such as funding, an appropriation bill, what that would look like.”

After months of negotiations, Gunn and Hosemann announced a House-Senate agreement last week on a medical marijuana program to replace the one adopted by voters last year but shot down by the state Supreme Court on a constitutional technicality. Gunn and Hosemann said they have the votes to pass the measure and asked Reeves to call a special session for Friday.

The draft medical marijuana bill legislative leaders have agreed to would levy the state’s sales tax, currently at 7 percent, on marijuana, and a $15 per ounce excise. But the bill does not specify funding for the Departments of Health, Revenue and Agriculture to run and regulate it. The bill routes the marijuana revenue into the general fund. This has prompted concern from state health and agriculture leaders that lawmakers would not adequately fund the agencies to stand up such a program.

Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson, who said he opposes his agency being involved in marijuana regulations, said the Legislature is “notorious” for creating new programs or duties for agencies without providing extra funding or staff. State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs expressed similar funding concerns this week.

Reeves has sole authority to call lawmakers into special session and set the agenda.

Hosemann and Gunn have also asked Reeves to allow lawmakers to tackle COVID-19 issues in a special session.

They want to give federal American Rescue Plan Act money to hospitals to pay nurses extra to help with what some health officials said is a shortage statewide of 2,000 nurses during the pandemic.

Gunn and Hosemann also want to change wording in a law that would allow families of first responders to receive death benefits if the first responder dies from COVID-19. Public safety officials have determined that a 2016 law that provides $100,000 in benefits to families of those who die in the line of duty does not cover COVID-19 deaths.

Hosemann and Gunn also want to provide emergency funding from federal ARPA funds to child abuse and domestic violence shelters and programs, who have lost regular sources of funding due to the pandemic, while cases of abuse have increased.

Reeves has had a rocky relationship with the Legislature, and has clashed particularly with his fellow GOP legislative leaders over control of spending federal pandemic stimulus money. Reeves has also said he doesn’t want lawmakers tied up at length in a special session, which would cost taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars a day.

This story was first published by Mississippi Today.

 

[bulllee]

Mississippi gov issuing ‘unreasonable demands’ on cannabis, lawmakers say​

By MJBizDaily Staff
October 15, 2021

Republican state lawmakers in Mississippi say that GOP Gov. Tate Reeves has been delaying a special session of the Legislature with “unreasonable demands” on parameters of a bill to legalize a medical cannabis program.

According to Mississippi Today, there’s been an ongoing back-and-forth between Reeves and Republican lawmakers since Sept. 24, when they informed him they were ready to come back for a special session in order to legalize MMJ.

The topic has been a political hot potato since the state Supreme Court in May ruled that a medical marijuana legalization initiative approved by voters last year was illegal because of a technicality

That meant the Legislature would be forced to pass a bill in order to launch a cannabis industry in the state.

Reeves has pledged to honor “the will of the voters” by signing a medical marijuana bill into law.

Reeves told Republican lawmakers in recent weeks he wants a lower limit on MMJ flower “dosage” amounts – down to 2.8 grams from the current proposal of 3.5 grams, which is about one-eighth of an ounce.

But GOP lawmakers refused to make that alteration, state Rep. Lee Yancey told Ridgeland-based Mississippi Today.

In a counterproposal, Reeves asked that physicians be allowed to approve 3.5-gram doses for MMJ patients but requested that nurses, physician assistants and optometrists be limited to recommending 2.8-gram doses. Yancey said that plan would be unworkable, according to Mississippi Today.

Then, during a recent news conference, Reeves said he was hoping to see lower THC caps for MMJ products written into the bill.

That request caught Yancey and other lawmakers off guard because the bill already contains a potency cap: 30% THC for smokable MMJ flower and 60% THC for concentrates.

​

 

[momofthegoons]

Mississippi Governor Won’t Sign Medical Cannabis Bill Without Major Changes​

Mississippi is frustrated by the changing goalposts from their governor when it comes to legalizing medical cannabis.

Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves revealed on Tuesday that he will not sign a medical cannabis bill proposed by state lawmakers, saying the legislation allows patients access to too much medical cannabis. In a message posted to Facebook, the Republican governor wrote that he would support the measure if the legislature cuts the daily cap on medical marijuana purchases in half.

“I hope that legislative leaders will see fit to consider reducing the tremendous amount of weed they seek to make legally accessible so that I can sign their bill and we can put this issue to rest,” Reeves wrote.

Mississippi voters approved Initiative 65, a ballot measure to legalize the medicinal use of marijuana, in November 2020. However, in May, the Mississippi Supreme Court overturned the statute, citing constitutional inconsistencies in the state’s initiative process.

In September, negotiators with the Mississippi Senate and House of Representatives announced that they had reached an agreement on a medical cannabis plan that has key differences compared to Initiative 65, including provisions that would allow local jurisdictions to regulate where medical marijuana could be cultivated, processed and sold.

Reeves Rejects Cap On Cannabis Purchases in Mississippi​

On Tuesday, Reeves said that the bill drafted by lawmakers addresses some of his worries about launching a medical marijuana program in Mississippi. But the governor added that he is still concerned with the question of how much cannabis a patient will be permitted to purchase.

“Unlike any other drug, this program allows virtually unlimited access to marijuana once you qualify. There is no pharmacist involved and no doctor setting the amount,” said Reeves. “There is only what legislators call a ‘budtender’ serving you pot.”

Reeves noted that under the legislature’s plan, patients would be allowed to purchase up to 3.5 grams of medical cannabis per day. Writing that a “simple google search shows that the average joint has 0.32 grams of marijuana,” Reeves said that each patient would be entitled to enough cannabis for 11 joints every day. The governor then offered patient statistics from Oklahoma, where about 376,000 patients have registered for the medical cannabis program.

“An equivalent sign-up rate in Mississippi would yield 300,000 Mississippians with a card to get up to 11 joints per day. That would allow the disbursement of 3.3 million joints per day in our state, which is the equivalent of approximately 100 million joints per month,” Reeves extrapolated. “That would be 1.2 billion legal joints sold in Mississippi per year. Call me crazy, but I just think that’s too broad of a starting point.”

Instead, Reeves suggested that lawmakers drastically cut the daily cap on medical cannabis purchases.

“I am asking the Legislature to simply cut that amount in half to start the program,” he wrote. “It is a simple fix.”

Reeves also suggested that the limit on medical cannabis could be revisited if the amended cap proves to be insufficient for patient needs.

“We can sit down five years from now and take a thorough review of the actual outcomes,” the governor wrote. “But—as the dad of three daughters that I love dearly—I cannot put my name on a bill that puts that much marijuana on the streets of Mississippi.”

Lawmakers will take up the bill during the new legislative session, which begins early next month. Many cannabis activists are already frustrated with Reeves for failing to follow through on plans to call a special session to consider the matter.

“This program was supposed to have been up and running already,” Citizens Alliance of Mississippi founder Shea Dobson told reporters last month. “I mean, we were supposed to have had medical marijuana in place right now as we speak. And every day that goes by, the governor moves the goalposts; we continue to see patients suffer more.”

 

[bulllee]

Mississippi Governor Won’t Sign Medical Cannabis Bill Without Major Changes​

Mississippi is frustrated by the changing goalposts from their governor when it comes to legalizing medical cannabis.

Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves revealed on Tuesday that he will not sign a medical cannabis bill proposed by state lawmakers, saying the legislation allows patients access to too much medical cannabis. In a message posted to Facebook, the Republican governor wrote that he would support the measure if the legislature cuts the daily cap on medical marijuana purchases in half.

“I hope that legislative leaders will see fit to consider reducing the tremendous amount of weed they seek to make legally accessible so that I can sign their bill and we can put this issue to rest,” Reeves wrote.

Mississippi voters approved Initiative 65, a ballot measure to legalize the medicinal use of marijuana, in November 2020. However, in May, the Mississippi Supreme Court overturned the statute, citing constitutional inconsistencies in the state’s initiative process.

In September, negotiators with the Mississippi Senate and House of Representatives announced that they had reached an agreement on a medical cannabis plan that has key differences compared to Initiative 65, including provisions that would allow local jurisdictions to regulate where medical marijuana could be cultivated, processed and sold.

Reeves Rejects Cap On Cannabis Purchases in Mississippi​

On Tuesday, Reeves said that the bill drafted by lawmakers addresses some of his worries about launching a medical marijuana program in Mississippi. But the governor added that he is still concerned with the question of how much cannabis a patient will be permitted to purchase.

“Unlike any other drug, this program allows virtually unlimited access to marijuana once you qualify. There is no pharmacist involved and no doctor setting the amount,” said Reeves. “There is only what legislators call a ‘budtender’ serving you pot.”

Reeves noted that under the legislature’s plan, patients would be allowed to purchase up to 3.5 grams of medical cannabis per day. Writing that a “simple google search shows that the average joint has 0.32 grams of marijuana,” Reeves said that each patient would be entitled to enough cannabis for 11 joints every day. The governor then offered patient statistics from Oklahoma, where about 376,000 patients have registered for the medical cannabis program.

“An equivalent sign-up rate in Mississippi would yield 300,000 Mississippians with a card to get up to 11 joints per day. That would allow the disbursement of 3.3 million joints per day in our state, which is the equivalent of approximately 100 million joints per month,” Reeves extrapolated. “That would be 1.2 billion legal joints sold in Mississippi per year. Call me crazy, but I just think that’s too broad of a starting point.”

Instead, Reeves suggested that lawmakers drastically cut the daily cap on medical cannabis purchases.

“I am asking the Legislature to simply cut that amount in half to start the program,” he wrote. “It is a simple fix.”

Reeves also suggested that the limit on medical cannabis could be revisited if the amended cap proves to be insufficient for patient needs.

“We can sit down five years from now and take a thorough review of the actual outcomes,” the governor wrote. “But—as the dad of three daughters that I love dearly—I cannot put my name on a bill that puts that much marijuana on the streets of Mississippi.”

Lawmakers will take up the bill during the new legislative session, which begins early next month. Many cannabis activists are already frustrated with Reeves for failing to follow through on plans to call a special session to consider the matter.

“This program was supposed to have been up and running already,” Citizens Alliance of Mississippi founder Shea Dobson told reporters last month. “I mean, we were supposed to have had medical marijuana in place right now as we speak. And every day that goes by, the governor moves the goalposts; we continue to see patients suffer more.”

That Governor is full of shit , fucking political spinning at it's best . " search shows that the average joint has 0.32 grams of marijuana,”

 

[Baron23]

Writing that a “simple google search shows that the average joint has 0.32 grams of marijuana,”

Only a New York nail.....WTF does this idiot know.

In Maryland, we have pre-rolls in .5 and 1 gram. There are some dog walker packages (like 5 of 6 of them in a little tin) that are about .3 or so....just for that quick...well, dog walk! haha

3.5 grams/day = 3.5 oz per month which, IMO, is not excessive. We are allowed 4 oz/month here in Maryland and tbh I have never hit that limit.

 

[Baron23]

As clock ticks, headwinds build against passage of Mississippi medical marijuana​

For some time after the Supreme Court shot down a vote of the people to create a Mississippi medical marijuana, it appeared fait accompli that lawmakers would enact a program, per the “will of the voters.”

Legislative leaders got to work over the summer to draft a bill. Gov. Tate Reeves said he would call lawmakers into special session to pass it once there was general agreement on the plan.

But it took a while to get such a draft together, and it wasn’t until late September that legislative leaders told Reeves they had consensus on a bill. Then Reeves said he had problems with it — particularly that it would allow patients to receive too much marijuana (even though the 4 ounces a month was less than the 5 ounces voters had approved in 2020). Law enforcement, religious, medical and other lobbies stepped up opposition to the measure.

As the debate devolved into how many joints can be rolled from a gram of pot, the potential for a special session faded. Last week, the regular legislative session began, and whatever golden hour there might have been for medical marijuana after the 2020 passage of Initiative 65 appears to have faded.

Recent from Mississippi Today:​

As time drags on, passage of a Mississippi medical marijuana program in a legislative session crowded with many other major issues becomes less assured , or even less likely. Senate leadership has indicated they intend to move relatively quickly — as early as this week — on the issue, but even those that support a program in general are coming up with pet peeves with the draft or things they want taken out or put into the measure. Alternative bills are being drafted.
And in the House, which doesn’t plan to take up its own version of the bill, Speaker Philip Gunn stated bluntly last week that “candidly, that is not a top issue for us” and that House leadership was trying to push the bill in “a more conservative direction,” indicating that there’s no longer agreement on the agreements ostensibly reached in the fall.

And for that matter, Reeves has threatened a veto if lawmakers pass what they agreed to then. Some legislative leaders have said they’re standing pat on the amount of marijuana allowed in the bill, but Gunn’s comments would at the least raise doubt about a veto-proof vote on that issue.

The overwhelming 2020 vote for Initiative 65 obviously caught politicians’ attention and prompted promises to quickly reinstate the program after the high court shot it down. There’s been a dearth of publicly released polling on the issue lately, but it would appear many politicians — perhaps with some internal polling in hand — don’t view it as No. 1 with a bullet among voters any more, or at least not an issue that could get your photo stripped from the Capitol hallway.

Medical marijuana has been a divisive issue in the Legislature for years, hence the citizen-and marijuana industry-led initiative.

As the clock ticks, headwinds appear to grow against lawmakers passing a Mississippi medical marijuana program

 

[momofthegoons]

Mississippi Senate Committee Approves Medical Marijuana Bill Despite Governor’s Veto Threat​

A medical marijuana legalization bill cleared a Missouri Senate committee on Wednesday, just a day after it was introduced. If the long-awaited legislation becomes law this session, a medical cannabis program could be up and running in the state by later this year.

The Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee approved the measure by a voice vote, and it is expected to be taken up on the floor as soon as Thursday.

Sen. Kevin Blackwell (R), the bill’s sponsor and a member of the committee, said that he tried to retain the spirit of a 2020 voter-passed initiative while making provisions more conservative to garner broad support in both chambers.

“There’s been a great deal of hours that have gone into this,” Blackwell said at Wednesday’s hearing, acknowledging that it’s “probably not a perfect bill.”

“We’ve tried to be conservative,” he added, pointing to track-and-trace rules and other restrictions that weren’t included in nearby Oklahoma’s medical marijuana law. “We tried to take…the intent of [Initiative] 65 and keep that within this framework.”

The bill’s route to passage remains precarious. Gov. Tate Reeves (R) has already threatened to veto the measure over its proposed purchase limits, which he says are too high, and some other state officials remain wary. But supportive lawmakers have said they’re confident they’ll have the votes to override any veto and push the legislation through.

Medical marijuana remains a contentious topic in Mississippi despite voters there decisively approving a broad legalization initiative in November 2020. The state Supreme Court overturned the measure on procedural grounds last May—simultaneously doing away with the state’s entire initiative process—and lawmakers have spent the last several months navigating what comes next.

The new bill, SB 2095, draws heavily from provisions negotiated by lawmakers in the second half of last year, as legislative leaders prepared a bill for an anticipated special session that the governor never called. It would allow patients with about two dozen specific medical conditions to qualify for medical marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation, with further conditions able to be added later by regulators. State-issued registration cards would cost $25, though some patients could qualify for a lower price.

The proposed qualifying conditions include cancer, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, muscular dystrophy, glaucoma, spastic quadriplegia, HIV, AIDS, hepatitis, Alzheimer’s, sickle-cell anemia, Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis, neuropathy, spinal cord disease or severe injury as well as chronic medical conditions or treatments that produce severe nausea, cachexia or wasting, seizures, severe or persistent muscle spasms or chronic pain.

Registered patients would be subject to purchase limits that would restrict them to no more than one “medical cannabis equivalency unit” per day, which the bill defines as 3.5 grams of cannabis flower, 1 gram of concentrate or up to 100 milligrams of THC in infused products. While those limits are significantly lower than in most states where cannabis is legal for medical patients, Reeves has said the program should allow only half those amounts.

Patients or caretakers would be forbidden from growing their own cannabis under the proposal. Products from state-licensed companies, meanwhile, would be limited to 30 percent THC for cannabis flower and 60 percent for concentrates.

Smoking and vaping cannabis would remain illegal in public and in motor vehicles, and patients would still be prohibited from driving while under the influence.

Legalization advocates say the 445-page bill represents a middle ground between the more permissive plan approved by nearly three-quarters of state voters in 2020 and a far narrower approach preferred by the governor and some lawmakers.

Kevin Caldwell, Southeast legislative manager for Marijuana Policy Project, which published a summary of the bill on Wednesday, told Marijuana Moment that the measure represents a step forward from the status quo despite some weaknesses, such as a requirement that doctors take hours of extra educational courses about cannabis and a provision he says will encourage chronic pain patients to use opioids over medical cannabis.

“We commend Senator Blackwell for sponsoring this legislation that seeks to respect voters’ mandate,” he said in an email. “We are disappointed that SB 2095 includes onerous restrictions on physicians and that it drives pain patients to opiates, but we recognize the challenge of getting past a hostile legislature and governor.”

The legislation would task the Mississippi Department of Health to oversee the new industry, with help from the state Department of Revenue and the Department of Agriculture and Commerce. It would also establish a nine-member advisory committee to advise on issues such as patient access and industry safety.

Licensing of cannabis businesses other than dispensaries — including cultivators, processors, transporters, disposal entities, testing labs and research facilities — would begin 120 days after the bill’s passage, with the first licenses issued about a month after that. The dispensary licensing process would kick off 150 days after passage, with the first licenses coming a month later. That would mean the program could be up and running, at least in limited form, by the end of this year.

The bill as introduced would impose no numerical cap on licensed businesses. “We tried to keep this as open [and] free market as we could, so there’s no limitation,” Blackwell said at Wednesday’s hearing.

Cities, counties and other localities could impose zoning and other restrictions. Businesses may also have to get approval from local authorities to operate.

In general, local governments could not ban medical cannabis businesses outright or “make their operation impracticable,” the bill says, although a separate provision would allow local governments to opt out of the program altogether within 90 days of the bill’s passage. In such cases, citizens could then petition to put the question to a vote.

“We felt it appropriate that if a handful of folks decided to override the citizenry, the citizenry should have a chance to opt back in,” Blackwell said.

Sen. Barbara Blackmon (D) offered two amendments that the committee rejected on voice votes. One would have allowed cannabis cultivation to be done outdoors rather than merely in indoor facilities, as the current draft would allow. She pointed out that all the state’s other farmers in the state’s nearly $9 billion agricultural industry are allowed to grow crops outside.

Blackwell opposed the change. “Yes, we are a very agricultural state,” the sponsor said, “however for control purposes, this product is better grown indoors.”

Blackmon’s second amendment would’ve added an equity-focused provision expressing the state’s intent to advance the interests of historically underserved communities, including those “adversely affected by poverty and inequality.” Blackwell replied that under his bill, “everybody has an equal opportunity right now.”

Another amendment, from Sen. Chad McMahan (R), would have allowed local governments to exempt non-dispensary cannabis businesses from a restriction that would create a 1,000-foot buffer zone around schools, childcares and churches. Blackwell suggested McMahan submit the proposal as a separate bill, but McMahan let the amendment stand. Colleagues rejected it on a voice vote.

For much of last year, it appeared lawmakers were set to pass a medical marijuana bill during a special legislative session, but the governor ultimately decided against calling the special session after reaching an impasse with lawmakers. Lawmakers who supported legalization said at the time that responsibility for the failure rested with Reeves.

“We have worked long hours on this,” Rep. Lee Yancey (R), who has been working with Blackwell on the House side, said in October. “We are ready to have a special session. We have the votes to pass this. An overwhelming number in the House and Senate are ready to pass this, and we have a majority of people in Mississippi who voted for us to pass this.

“If there is any further delay, that will be squarely on the shoulders of the governor, rather than the Legislature.”

Later that month, Reeves dodged questions from patient advocates about why he’d failed to call the special session.

In late December, with this year’s regular session approaching, he said on social media that he had “repeatedly told the members of the Legislature that I am willing to sign a bill that is truly medical marijuana,” but stressed that there should be “reasonable restrictions.”

“There is one remaining point in question that is VERY important: how much marijuana any one individual can get in any given day,” he wrote, doing back-of-the-envelope math to argue that the system would lead to “1.2 billion legal joints.”

While Reeves said he would consider rejecting the bill over possession limits, Sen. Brice Wiggins (R), chairman of the Judiciary Committee Division A, said it wouldn’t surprise him if the legislature were to override the governor if he chooses to veto the bill.

“I would hate for Governor Reeves to have any veto overridden because, like I said, I’ve worked with him on many different things,” Wiggins said late last month. “But the reality is is that Initiative 65 passed with close to 70 percent of the vote. And the legislature spent all summer working on this and have listened to the people.”

Blackwell tried to make a point to the governor about purchase limits last week, when he brought hemp to Reeves’s office to give an idea of the amounts allowed under the bill. “I took samples to show him what an ounce actually looks like—what 3.5 grams actually looks like,” the senator said.

In an interview with the Mississippi Free Press, Blackwell described the meeting as cordial but acknowledged there was little willingness to compromise on key issues. “I thought it went well. [The governor] was receptive, appreciative of the meeting. Hopefully we moved the bar a little bit closer to an agreement,” Blackwell said. “He was non-committal, so they’re going to think about what we said and get back with us.”

A poll released in June found that a majority of Mississippi voters support legalizing marijuana for both medical and recreational use, with 63 percent saying they want the legislature to pass a bill that mirrors the ballot measure that was nullified by the Supreme Court.

“The patients who suffer daily have already had their will overturned by a technicality,” said Caldwell at Marijuana Policy Project. “If the legislature does not pass SB 2095, they are simply pushing patients to the illicit market.”

 

[Baron23]

Mississippi poised to legalize medical cannabis after House passage ​

Mississippi is on the verge of legalizing a commercial medical cannabis program after the state House of Representatives on Wednesday voted 104-14 in favor of a bill to launch an MMJ program.

But Senate Bill 2095, which was passed last week by the state Senate, was amended in the House, so it must go back to the Senate for approval before heading to the desk of Republican Gov. Tate Reeves.

“Today is an historic day for the patients of Mississippi,” Kevin Caldwell, Southeast legislative manager for the Washington DC-headquartered Marijuana Policy Project, said in a statement.

Caldwell noted that the state Legislature crafted a compromise bill after the Mississippi Supreme Court last year voided a voter-approved measure on technical grounds.

Senate Bill 2095, the Mississippi Medical Cannabis Act of 2022, is more restrictive than the business-friendly measure passed by voters.

A major difference is that the current legislation would allow municipalities to opt out of the industry.

 

[momofthegoons]

Mississippi Lawmakers Reach Deal To Send Medical Marijuana Bill To Governor This Week​

Mississippi House and Senate lawmakers have reached an agreement to send a bill to legalize medical marijuana to the governor’s desk this week. Following Senate action on Tuesday, the bill will now go to a bicameral conference committee to finalize details of the legislation, with votes in both chambers for final passage expected on Wednesday.

Sen. Kevin Blackwell (R) and Rep. Lee Yancey (R) discussed the agreement at a press conference on Tuesday. There was an opportunity for a concurrence vote in the Senate—where the bill originated and advanced to the House this month and was then amended—but following pushback from the Mississippi Municipal League (MML) over a House change related to zoning rules for cannabis businesses, the Senate voted against concurrence and will instead move the measure to conference.

This comes more than 14 months after voters in Mississippi passed an initiative to legalize medical cannabis—a law the state Supreme Court later overturned. And the bill that’s being tweaked again is the result of months of negotiations and last-minute changes to a nearly 450-page bill.

“This has been a long journey, and it’s nice to be in a place where everyone is in agreement,” Yancey said on Tuesday. “It looks like we will finally be able to provide relief to those people with debilitating illnesses who so badly need it. Medical cannabis will now be an option for them as soon as we get the conference report signed and sent to the governor.”

While the overall bill will remain largely the same as an earlier version passed by the Senatethis month, the recent House amendments reduced the overall monthly amount of cannabis products available to patients, removed the Department of Agriculture and Commerce from oversight of the industry and expanded zoning allowances for cannabis cultivators and processors.

Only the zoning allowances provision will change. Instead of allowing cultivators and processors to operate in commercial zoning areas, as would have been allowed under the bill as amended by the House, they would only be permitted in industrial or agriculture zoned areas, satisfying MML.

Assuming that conference goes as planned, the legislature will then formally transmit the bill to Gov. Tate Reeves (R), who then has five days, excluding Sundays, either to sign it into law or return it with objections. Both the Senate and House, however, have passed the legislation with veto-proof majorities. If the governor doesn’t take any action by the deadline, the bill will become law without his signature.

Reeves has been wary of legalization in recent months, at one point threatening to veto a draft bill if it made it to his desk. Since then, proponents in the legislature have worked to balance the voter-approved initiative’s more permissive proposals against the governor’s calls for tighter restrictions.

The governor said last week that the measure has become “better” with every revision and rightly predicted further amendments by the House.

Provided the bill becomes law, dispensaries would be licensed about six months later, meaning Mississippi’s medical cannabis program could be up and running, at least in limited form, by the end of the year.

The bill, SB 2095, draws heavily from provisions negotiated by lawmakers in the second half of last year, as legislative leaders prepared a bill for an anticipated special session last summer that the governor never called. Supporters say the lengthy proposal represents a middle ground between the more permissive plan approved by voters and the narrower approach preferred by Reeves and some lawmakers.

The legislation as amended by the House would allow patients with about two dozen qualifying medical conditions to purchase the equivalent of 3.5 grams of marijuana (or 1 gram of cannabis concentrate) per day, with a maximum monthly limit of 3 ounces. Voters approved a monthly limit of 5 ounces in 2020, and the bill as passed by the Senate last week would have allowed 3.5 ounces, but that was further scaled back by the House earlier this week.

Qualifying conditions under the bill include cancer, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, muscular dystrophy, glaucoma, spastic quadriplegia, HIV, AIDS, hepatitis, Alzheimer’s, sickle-cell anemia, Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis, neuropathy, spinal cord disease or severe injury as well as chronic medical conditions or treatments that produce severe nausea, cachexia or wasting, seizures, severe or persistent muscle spasms or chronic pain.

Further conditions could be added later by regulators via petition. State-issued patient registration cards would cost $25, though some people could qualify for a lower price.

Registered patients would be subject to purchase limits that would restrict them to no more than one “medical cannabis equivalency unit” per day, which the bill defines as 3.5 grams of cannabis flower, one gram of concentrate or up to 100 milligrams of THC in infused products. While those limits are significantly lower than in most states where cannabis is legal for medical patients, Reeves said last year the program should allow only half those amounts.

Patients or caretakers would be forbidden from growing their own cannabis under the proposal. Products from state-licensed companies, meanwhile, would be limited to 30 percent THC for cannabis flower and 60 percent for concentrates.

There would be no limit on the number of licensed businesses under the plan.

Medical marijuana would be taxed at a wholesale rate of 5 percent, and purchases would also be subject to state sales tax.

While smoking and vaping cannabis is allowed for patients, both would be illegal in public and in motor vehicles. It would still be a crime for patients to drive under the influence.

The legislation would task the Mississippi Department of Health to oversee the new industry and establish a nine-member advisory committee to make recommendations on issues such as patient access and industry safety.

Previous versions of the bill also tasked the state Commission of Agriculture and Commerce with regulatory duties, but the House removed the agency through an amendment. Commissioner Andy Gipson, who for months had pushed back against the plan, thanked House Speaker Philip Gunn and other lawmakers for making the change in a statement issued last week.

“The best place for a truly medical program is under the Department of Health, which reflects the will of the voters in Initiative 65,” Gipson said, according to SuperTalk Mississippi. “This change is good policy for Mississippi agriculture and allows us to focus on our core mission. It is also good policy for the taxpayers of Mississippi because it achieves greater efficiency in the use of funds by reducing the number of agencies involved in the program.”

Licensing of cannabis businesses other than dispensaries—including cultivators, processors, transporters, disposal entities, testing labs and research facilities—would begin 120 days after the bill’s passage, with the first licenses issued about a month after that. The dispensary licensing process would kick off 150 days after passage, with the first licenses coming a month later.

Cannabis businesses may have to get seek local approval to operate, and municipalities can adopt zoning and land use restrictions. In general, local governments could not ban medical cannabis businesses outright or “make their operation impracticable,” the bill says, but a separate provision would allow local governments to opt out of the program altogether within 90 days of the bill’s passage. In such cases, citizens could then petition to put the question to a vote.

Mississippi voters decisively approved a broad legalization initiative in November 2020. The state Supreme Court overturned the measure on procedural grounds last May—simultaneously doing away with the state’s entire initiative process.

For much of last year, it appeared lawmakers were set to pass a medical marijuana bill during a special legislative session, but the governor ultimately decided against calling the special session after reaching an impasse with lawmakers. Those who supported legalization said at the time that responsibility for the failure rested with Reeves.

Later that month, Reeves dodged questions from patient advocates about why he’d failed to call the special session. Then in late December, he said on social media that he had “repeatedly told the members of the Legislature that I am willing to sign a bill that is truly medical marijuana,” but stressed that there should be “reasonable restrictions.”

Last week, before the House floor vote, Yancey, who chairs the House Drug Policy Committee and who’s been working on the legislation with Blackwell, said that he never imagined he’d be in the position to legalize cannabis. But he said he worked to ensure the bill was focused on providing medicine to patients, not paving a route to a recreational program as critics have claimed.

“When I got involved in this bill, I said, ‘How can we build a wall around this program so the people who get it are the people who need it the most, and only the people who need it the most?” Yancey said. “This is not for everybody out on the street. This is not for a bunch of kids. This is for hurting people with debilitating conditions.”

A poll released in June found that a majority of Mississippi voters support legalizing marijuana for both medical and recreational use, with 63 percent saying they want the legislature to pass a bill that mirrors the ballot measure that was nullified by the Supreme Court.