Medical marijuana bill has huge loophole that will allow lawmakers and their families to own dispensaries

A Senate invoice that might create a medical marijuana program within the state and handed the Home on Wednesday has an 18-wheeler sized loophole.

Scrolling down the textual content of Senate Bill 2095 referred to as the Mississippi Medical Marijuana Act, a reader arrives at line 1,361. This provision covers the eligibility of state lawmakers and their members of the family to turn out to be dispensary homeowners. The invoice bans them from collaborating within the enterprise till December 31, 2022.

This implies the restriction expires at 12 months’s finish, permitting lawmakers (who’ll have the ability to put in writing legal guidelines governing the medical marijuana trade) and their households to be contributors in what will probably be a closely regulated trade.

State Rep. Dan Eubanks (R-Partitions) advised the Northside Solar because the program would take at the least 180 days to begin, there primarily can be no ban on lawmakers or their households taking part.

Eubanks tried to plug the loophole with an amendment that was defeated on a 68-41 roll name vote. His modification would’ve stretched that deadline out to 2025.

SB 2095 was authored by state Sen. Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven.

He mentioned he voted for the invoice on last passage as a result of he mentioned the desire of the folks was to create a program, as evidenced by Initiative 65, which was handed in 2020 and overturned by the state Supreme Court docket when it threw out the state’s poll initiative legislation. The invoice goes again to the Senate and if the opposite chamber agrees with the alterations, it’ll head to Gov. Tate Reeves’ desk to be signed into legislation.

“We’re going to have numerous course corrections with this invoice till the cows come residence as a result of this invoice can have all types of unintended penalties,” Eubanks mentioned. “My modification was to attempt to add some transparency to this invoice.”

The second-term Republican additionally mentioned that dispensary-owning lawmakers (or these with spouses taking part within the trade) can be co-opted since they’d be contributors within the trade they created and can regulate.

Eubanks mentioned {that a} vote was rushed on the invoice and that almost all representatives didn’t count on to vote on the 445-page invoice. The Home Drug Coverage Committee amended the invoice to alter the accountable company for this system from the Mississippi Division of Agriculture and Commerce to the Division of Well being.

The modification additionally diminished the quantity of hashish {that a} medical marijuana card holder may obtain from seven doses to 6 per week or a complete of 21 grams of hashish flower (the psychoactive a part of the plant).

The invoice requires that the proprietor of a dispensary have established residence within the state for 3 years. Eubanks mentioned that out-of-state growers from Oklahoma and Arkansas will accomplice with native residents to open dispensaries, giving them a bonus over native trade contributors.