STARKVILLE — As of this year, nine states and the District of Columbia – including Alaska, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Maine, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington — have legalized the possession and recreational use of marijuana. Those same nine states plus 22 more have legalized the use of medical marijuana — including Arkansas, Florida and Louisiana — in variable amounts under variable conditions.
Other states, such as Alabama and Mississippi, have laws on the books permitting the use of medical marijuana for severe epileptic conditions, but the drug remains practically and legally unobtainable due to red tape, conflicting state and federal laws, and an abundance of caution from health-care professionals and law enforcement agencies.
But conservative Republican Gov. Phil Bryant signed Mississippi’s very narrow current medical marijuana bill into law in 2014, one that drew support from some of the state’s most conservative lawmakers. In signing the law, Bryant told Jackson TV station WAPT:
“The bill I signed into law will help children who suffer from severe seizure disorders. Throughout the legislative process, I insisted on the tightest controls and regulations for this measure, and I have been assured by the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics that CBD oil (cannabinol) is not an intoxicant. The outcome is a bill that allows this substance to be used therapeutically, as is the case for other controlled prescription medication.”
The parents supporting that 2014 law (and a subsequent amendment) still wait today, however, for a clear path to legally buy cannabis oil for their epileptic children.
Against that backdrop, political forces who simply wanted to legalize cannabis or hemp in Mississippi for all purposes took their shots in failed initiative-and-referendum efforts. Both referendum efforts failed in 2016 to garner sufficient signatures to trigger voter referendums.
Wide-open marijuana legalization efforts in Mississippi remain political efforts that are dead on arrival with the voters in a state that still has a significant number of cities and counties that are “dry” on beer and light wine or on alcoholic beverages.
Into that scenario enters the Medical Marijuana 2020 effort in Mississippi. Not in all my years has a medical marijuana legalization effort been this well-organized, focused, or financed. The group proposes to make medical marijuana available via a doctor’s prescription to Mississippians who have “debilitating medical conditions.”
What would qualify as a “debilitating condition” under the proposed law? According to the group, it would be “cancer, epilepsy and other seizures, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, multiple sclerosis, post-traumatic stress disorder, HIV, AIDS, chronic pain, ALS, glaucoma, Crohn’s disease, sickle-cell anemia, autism with aggressive or self-injurious behavior, spinal cord injuries, and similar diseases.”
After enduring cancer and an aggressive chemotherapy regimen last year that brought with it months of constant nausea and other maladies, my mind is open to hearing the group out. I’m not quite ready to support this effort, but neither am I ready to shout it down.
Review the medical marijuana group’s arguments at MedicalMarijuana2020.com and judge for yourself whether they make their case. Mississippians aren’t likely to approve any ballot measure that makes marijuana legal for recreational purposes — and this isn’t such a law.
• Sid Salter is director of the Office of University Relations at Mississippi State University. Contact him at sidsalter@sidsalter.com.
