Home Political News Likelihood of Special Session in Mississippi Continues to Fall

Likelihood of Special Session in Mississippi Continues to Fall

0
Likelihood of Special Session in Mississippi Continues to Fall

Instead of avoiding questions from advocates and the general public, Governor Tate Reeves, R, of Mississippi finally gave an answer regarding calling for a special session. On November 9 at an event on the coast, a local reporter asked, “Anytime planning soon for a special session?”

“Uh… no,” replied Reeves.

This latest response is a huge disappointment to advocates pushing for a special session for medical cannabis in Mississippi. It also hurts those who say they are suffering because they don’t have access to the medicine they desperately need.  

A medical cannabis program should be up and running by now, according to Shea Dobson. She is the founder of Citizens Alliance of Mississippi. “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.”

Road to Legalization

Previously, Mississippi citizens approved IM 65, which would legalize medical cannabis for qualifying patients, with a 74 percent approval. However, in May, the state Supreme Court overturned the measure on a technicality. This brought medical cannabis to a halt in the state as well as a need to restructure the ballot initiative process. 

While the regular session had already ended for the year, lawmakers agreed to work together to create a similar bill to IM 65, which voters highly approved of. Governor Reeves also agreed to call for a special session once lawmakers got him a workable draft of a medical cannabis bill. He didn’t want to call for a special session until then to not waste thousands of taxpayer dollars. 

So lawmakers submitted a draft of a medical cannabis bill at the end of September, ready for a special session to discuss medical cannabis, along with a few other pressing issues. Instead of calling for a special session, Governor Reeves asked for some changes to the bill. And lawmakers made them work as much as possible. 

But another standstill has happened. Lawmakers claim Governor Reeves is making ‘unreasonable demands’ over the medical cannabis bill. And since the governor is the only one who can call for a special session in the state, the future of medical cannabis this year is unknown. 

Response

Lawmakers in Mississippi, as well as advocates and citizens, are speaking out against how Reeves is handling the situation. The program approved by citizens and now written by lawmakers would not create a recreational cannabis program in the state, which is a concern Reeves has brought up in the past. 

“We certainly have worked hard to make sure this is not recreational,” noted House Speaker Philip Gunn, R. “Some have tried to couch it as that. It is not. We worked very hard to move very close to medical marijuana, true medical miracle.”

Veto

Another concern lawmakers currently are discussing is the potential for a veto from Reeves. The debate is currently over the amount of medical cannabis a patient can purchase at a time. Reeves is arguing that patients should purchase less than ⅛ of an ounce per dose. Lawmakers argue back that ⅛ is appropriate as it is the industry standard and all machines are calibrated to ⅛ an ounce. Changing that would make things much more difficult for industry producers as well as deny patients even more of the medicine they need. 

If the same bill proposed to Governor Reeves makes it through the House and the Senate during the regular session, there’s a chance Reeves could veto it. However, lawmakers can overturn a veto with a ⅔ majority vote from both chambers. One lawmaker says he believes they could overturn a veto should it come down to it.

“Because of the votes necessary to pass the measure in the legislature in the first place, then we would pretty much be at veto-proof stage if the governor would decide that he wanted to veto it. I think we’d have enough votes to override,” said Senator John Horhn, D.

Future

The likelihood of a special session in Mississippi for medical cannabis and other urgent issues will most likely not happen. This could jeopardize Reeve’s chances of reelection in 2023 as this is his first term as governor. However, Reeves has not stated if he will run again. Should a special session be called or if medical cannabis must wait until the next regular session in January 2022, we will update you with the latest.

Make sure to check back for more cannabis, hemp, and psychedelic related news