Mississippi's Legislature Ready to Throw Hands Over Cannabis

Let's start the day with a hat-tip to the fabulous work done by Marijuana Moment at bringing timely and insightful stories every dang day, and especially their go-to superstar, Kyle Jaeger. Keep up the excellent work over there!

Starting with the headline “Mississippi Lawmakers Positioned To Override Governor If He Vetoes Medical Marijuana Bill, GOP Senator Says”

THE SCOOP

One Mississippi two Mississippi three Mississippi, you’d think I owned a catfishing boat... For the third time in 3 weeks, I am reporting in The State of Cannabis News Hour on THE MESS IN THE MAGNOLIA STATE.

On Christmas Eve, I reported on Governor Tate Reeves goofy attempt at explaining his opposition to the cannabis law that was approved by 70% of the voters, and on which the state legislature worked all summer to write.

In obstructing the will of the people, Reeves is emulating 2 Republican governors I really hate: former Governor Paul Le Page of Maine and current Governor Kristi Noem of South Dakota in saying “Voters? FU!”

In Reeves' pea-brained, Excel-spreadsheet-101 analysis, "... if 10% of Mississippians get marijuana cards, that would be 300,000 cards in the State. And if each of those people bought their limit of cannabis, which is 3.5 grams per day, then each of them could roll 11 joints per day. Every day. And if each one of the 300,000 rolled 11 joints per day every day, then there would be 3.3 Million joints per day “floating around Mississippi” "

The Governor’s “Mississippi Math” shows a complete misunderstanding of patient needs and cannabis generally. (Thank you Reginald Reefer at Cannabis.net for that phrase, and this one: "Gov. Tate Reeves is not a cannabis fan, or math major.")

THE DEEP DIVE

As if patients are going to be floating their weed after spending their good cash money for it. And speaking of cash, does the Governor believe all 300,000 patients in Mississippi – who by law must be suffering from a debilitating medical condition - have the extra $12,000 in cash per year to buy their limit every day? When the average income in Mississippi is only $25,000?

Nice try Governor, while you’re looking down your nose at cannabis patients as the dregs of society, why don’t you call them Welfare Queens?

[And since we're bagging on Mississippi, let's give Nina Simone a shot.]

With all that, it won’t surprise you that Governor Reeves has himself in such a tizzy about all these reefers floating around his crystal clean state, that he’s threatened to VETO the medical marijuana bill entirely unless the daily amount is cut in half.

WTF?

Let’s stop for a second and recognize that this a**hole wants to cut 50% of the medicine from 300,000 people suffering from debilitating medical conditions as "cancer, epilepsy or other seizures, Parkinson’sdisease, Huntington’s disease, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, cachexia, post-traumatic stress disorder, positive status for human immunodeficiency virus, acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), chronic or debilitating pain, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, glaucoma, agitation of dementias, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, sickle-cell anemia, autism with aggressive or self-injurious behaviors… a list of 22 major illnesses that are brutal and affect millions of Americans...

And let’s also remind the Governor that he was elected by a margin of 45,028 votes. Making 300,000 voters very angry doesn’t seem like a good strategy…

THE LOOP BACK

Reeves' veto threat brings us to the headline ... IF the good governor vetoes the bill, the legislature is prepared to override his decision and pass it anyway.

“Senator Brice Wiggins, a Republican like the Governor, and chairman of the Judiciary Committee Division A … says the people of Mississippi spoke loud and clear when they voted to approve a medical cannabis legalization initiative last year, and lawmakers have a duty to deliver on the reform.”

“I would hate for Governor Reeves to have any veto overridden … But the reality is that Initiative 65 passed with close to 70 percent of the vote. And the legislature spent all summer working on this and have listened to the people.”

Sounds like the legislature doesn’t like its time wasted, Governor, even if your voters will put up with it… Stay tuned to Mississippi – let’s see who blinks.