{"id":48090,"date":"2021-06-04T04:52:45","date_gmt":"2021-06-04T12:52:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2021\/06\/04\/mississippi-lawmakers-hold-medical-marijuana-hearing-after-court-overturns-voter-approved-law\/"},"modified":"2021-06-04T13:45:39","modified_gmt":"2021-06-04T21:45:39","slug":"mississippi-lawmakers-hold-medical-marijuana-hearing-after-court-overturns-voter-approved-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2021\/06\/04\/mississippi-lawmakers-hold-medical-marijuana-hearing-after-court-overturns-voter-approved-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Mississippi Lawmakers Hold Medical Marijuana Hearing After Court Overturns Voter-Approved Law"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Leaders have discussed calling a special session to approve a new cannabis program.<\/em><\/p>\n

By Bobby Harrison, Mississippi Today<\/strong><\/p>\n

The basic principles of the medical marijuana initiative approved by Mississippi voters in November\u2014but struck down recently by the state Supreme Court<\/a>\u2014should be honored, members of the Senate Public Health Committee were told Thursday.<\/p>\n

Ken Newburger, executive director of the Mississippi Medical Marijuana Association, conceded to the committee that there are areas where the now invalidated Initiative 65<\/a> could be improved, such as allowing local governments more leeway in zoning medical marijuana dispensaries and not placing the entire program under the umbrella of the underfunded and under-resourced Mississippi State Department of Health.<\/p>\n

But Newburger, who worked to pass the medical marijuana proposal, said any legislation passed in response to the Supreme Court striking down Initiative 65 should adhere to the principles of:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Allowing broad access to medical marijuana.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Giving doctors the authority to certify usage of medical marijuana where they believe it would be beneficial.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Allowing the free market to dictate who could operate a medical marijuana-related business.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Ensuring the medical marijuana program is self-sustaining.<\/p>\n

\n

The hearing of the Senate Public Heath Committee was the first since the Supreme Court ruled last month the medical marijuana initiative and the entire ballot initiative process invalid. Legislative leaders and Gov. Tate Reeves (R) have discussed the possibility of a special session<\/a> to consider both the reinstatement of the medical marijuana program and entire initiative process where citizens can gather signatures to place issues on the ballot for voters to decide.<\/p>\n

Both House Speaker Philip Gunn (R) and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann (R), who presides over the Senate, watched a portion of the hearing from the back of a crowded committee room at the state Capitol, but left before the hearing was completed.<\/p>\n

\n

The Senate Public Health Committee will hold a public hearing to discuss medical marijuana today, June 3, at 1:30 p.m. The hearing will be held at the State Capitol in Room 216 and will be webcast on the Legislature\u2019s website at the following link: https:\/\/t.co\/gX4AXOwce4<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Delbert Hosemann (@DelbertHosemann) June 3, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Senate Public Health Chairman Hob Bryan, D-Amory, said Thursday\u2019s hearing was a step in determining the type of program the Legislature should consider. The issue that must be decided first, Bryan said, is what kind of program the state should have\u2014a recreational marijuana program, a tightly controlled medical marijuana program or a loosely controlled medical marijuana program.<\/p>\n

Asked if a special session could be expected soon, Bryan said, \u201cI do not believe there will be a special session until there is some consensus between the House and the Senate. If I was governor, I would not call one before then.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Brice Wiggins, R-Pascagoula, questioned whether it would be wiser just to approve a recreational program.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a dichotomy between what people want and what the science says,\u201d Wiggins said. \u201cAre we putting doctors in a position to do something that they don\u2019t have the proper data to safely do?\u201d<\/p>\n

He asked, \u201cWhy don\u2019t we just jump to recreational with this?\u201d<\/p>\n

State Health Officer Thomas Dobbs, whose Department of Health was tasked with enacting Initiative 65 before it was struck down by the Supreme Court, said more regulation is needed in whatever the Legislature approves. He said there is research showing that marijuana is beneficial for some health issues such as nausea and vomiting associated with cancer treatments, but the research is inconclusive in other area. He said there are also risks with the use of marijuana, especially for children.<\/p>\n

Dr. Larry Walker, director emeritus of the National Center for Natural Product Research at the University of Mississippi, said, \u201cI do believe there are legitimate needs\u201d for medical marijuana. \u201cI think they should be met in a medical way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walker said with the 2.5 ounces of marijuana allowed to be sold to a person every two weeks for medical purposes under Initiative 65, \u201cYou could get your whole family high every day and still have enough to sell 40 or 50 joints.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walker held up to the committee a one-ounce bag of dried parsley to give perspective. He and Dobbs also spoke of the need to regulate the amount of THC, the active psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, used on a daily basis.<\/p>\n

Dobbs said the state Board of Health that oversees his agency is opposed to the legalizing of the smoking of marijuana in most instances because of its health risks, though he conceded it appeared most people oppose that position.<\/p>\n

Sen. Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven, broached the possibility of allowing municipalities to ban the sale of medical marijuana by a vote of its citizens. Sen. Barbara Blackmon, D-Canton, said that could penalize people who need marijuana for health reasons.<\/p>\n

Shari Veazey, executive director of the Mississippi Municipal League, said she believed her organization would support an opt out provision for local governments.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court struck down the medical marijuana language after it was challenged by the city of Madison and its mayor, Mary Hawkins Butler. The lawsuit claimed the initiative process was unconstitutional because it required the signatures to place an issue on the ballot to be gathered equally from five congressional districts, though the state lost a U.S. House seat after the 2000 Census and now has four.<\/p>\n

This story was first published by Mississippi Today.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Idaho Marijuana Activists Launch Limited Legalization Campaign For 2022 Ballot<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Photo courtesy of Max Pixel<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The post Mississippi Lawmakers Hold Medical Marijuana Hearing After Court Overturns Voter-Approved Law<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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Leaders have discussed calling a special session to approve a new cannabis program. By Bobby Harrison, Mississippi Today The basic principles of the medical marijuana initiative approved by Mississippi voters in November\u2014but struck down recently by the state Supreme Court\u2014should be honored, members of the Senate Public Health Committee wereContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":457,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48090"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48090"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48091,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48090\/revisions\/48091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}