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If the Mississippi governor vetoed a medical marijuana bill over concerns about the proposed patient purchase limit, lawmakers could potentially override that decision, a key state senator said Wednesday.

Governor Tate Reeves (R) said Tuesday he wanted lawmakers to cut the daily shopping limit for patients in half. The law requiring lawmakers to spend the summer negotiating 3.5 grams of marijuana a day, and the governor signaled that he would veto the entire reform proposal if they did not significantly reduce that amount.

But Senator Brice Wiggins (R), chairman of Division A of the Judiciary Committee, who is also running for a seat in Congress this year, says the Mississippi people spoke loudly and clearly when they called for approval of a legalization initiative last year of medical cannabis. and lawmakers are required to implement the reform after the state Supreme Court ruled it invalid on procedural grounds.

He told Y’all Politics that “I wouldn’t be surprised” if lawmakers voted to override the governor if they choose to veto the bill they have been working on for months .

“I would hate it if Governor Reeves had overridden any veto because, like I said, I worked with him on a lot of different things,” said Wiggins. “But the reality is that Initiative 65 was accepted with almost 70 percent of the vote. And the legislature worked on it all summer and listened to the people. “

“I understand where he’s coming from, but in the hearings we had on the Public Health Committee we heard from lawmakers from Oklahoma, Michigan, Colorado – and now I obviously wasn’t a drafter of this bill, but I trust the” committee chairmen, who do this, ”he said.

“It wouldn’t surprise me that if that happened, that would be the case,” he said, referring to the possibility of the veto being lifted.

Legislature has already made several concessions to the governor as it negotiated a bill to replace the voter-approved vote, and proponents hoped it would all be resolved in time for Reeves to call a special session to approve it this year say goodbye as he suggested that he would do it. However, when the goal post was pushed back further, it became clear that lawmakers would have to tackle the reform in the 2022 session.

House and Senate leaders announced in September that they had agreed on reform, but the governor came back with several objections, forcing lawmakers to step back and make some compromises. Even after that, Reeves stuck to what the leadership calls “unreasonable demands”.

Reeves has consistently voiced his marijuana purchase limit concerns, including during a briefing last week.

There are many reasons for the urgency to put this reform into effect. Aside from the obvious fact that patients are sick and can benefit from cannabis, lawmakers worked on reform after the state Supreme Court shot down the medical marijuana legalization initiative that voted overwhelmingly by voters last year due to a constitutional formality.

Legislators also said giving them the opportunity to pass legalization during a special session before the end of the year would have helped them tackle big issues like coronavirus fundraising when the legislature comes back to session next month.

An additional difficulty that lawmakers have faced is that Commissioner for Agriculture and Trade Andy Gipson has insisted that his department is not responsible for licensing marijuana businesses. He sent letters to lawmakers and the attorney general to express his opposition to regulating the program.

The legislature responded by handing this responsibility over to the health department.

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An earlier draft lawmaker’s marijuana bill sought to build on the measure voters approved last year by including hepatitis, Alzheimer’s, spastic quadriplegia and chronic pain as qualifying diseases.

After receiving an initial medical cannabis recommendation from a licensed doctor, patients had to return to their doctor six months later for reassessment.

A weight-based excise tax would be levied on cannabis sales – $ 15 per ounce of flower or strain – as well as the general state sales tax.

A possibility of self-cultivation would not be permitted within the scope of the measure. Smoking cannabis would be allowed, but not in public places.

A poll released in June found that a majority of Mississippi voters support the legalization of marijuana for both medical and recreational uses, with 63 percent saying they want lawmakers to pass a bill that would invalidate those made by the court declared voting slip reflects.

A Senate committee held a series of hearings to give evidence on what a law to legalize medical cannabis might look like should lawmakers decide to pass the reform into law.

The governor said earlier this summer, “I support the will of the voters” and “I think we will have a medical marijuana program in Mississippi”. He said it was “imperative that we get there, and quickly.”

New marijuana laws come into effect in the United States with the New Year

Photo courtesy WeedPornDaily.

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