Mississippi is not moving ahead with medical cannabis, as the governor has yet to approve a special session to discuss.
There’s a standoff over medical cannabis in Mississippi, with the governor and state lawmakers still at odds over provisions in the proposed legislation.
It is up to Republican Governor Tate Reeves to call a special legislative session that is necessary to pass a bill that would implement a new medical marijuana law in the state––something Mississippi voters approved at the ballot last year.
But Reeves has yet to give the green light to such a session, saying Monday that there are portions of the bill written by Mississippi legislators that he simply cannot get behind.
“Clearly, I wasn’t going to agree to that, so we’ve made some necessary improvements to the bill, but we haven’t gotten to the point where I am comfortable yet in ensuring that we have a program that is truly ‘medical mariuana’ that has strict rules in place,” Reeves said, as quoted by Mississippi Public Broadcasting.
The outlet reported that Reeeves said he is “in talks with lawmakers about adding additional restrictions on how much marijuana someone can purchase if they do qualify for the program,” and that absent those restrictions, “the state may be closer to having a recreational marijuana industry,” something to which he is opposed.
Reeves said the biggest disagreement between he and lawmakers deals with volume––both the amount of marijuana a patient can acquire, and the potency of the product.
“Really the one key piece left is with respect to how much marijuana can any one individual get at any one point in time and what is the THC content of that marijuana. And so, that’s really the last piece that we’re working on,” Reeves told reporters while attending an event hosted by the Mississippi Poultry Association, as reported by the website Y’all Politics.
But the road to implementing the new law has been typified by delays and obstacles, most notably a decision by the state Supreme Court in May that ruled the initiative unconstitutional.
Since then, Reeves and members of the state legislature have been negotiating a bill to replace the struck down initiative and still legalize medical cannabis treatment. But with the regular legislative session ending in the spring, passing the bill will necessitate a special session, which only Reeves has the authority…
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