Surprise, surprise, the Health Department is taking quite some time to step into its role as Mississippi's medical marijuana regulator. 47% vacancy rates tend to have that effect. Mississippi Today reported yesterday:
Dozens of licensed cultivators have about 80,000 marijuana plants growing. Around 1,100 patients have signed up for medical marijuana, and 96 doctors or nurse practitioners are working to certify them. Small growers are complaining a large one has been allowed to skirt the rules.
But the Mississippi State Department of Health has zero investigators — and only three staffers — overseeing Mississippi’s new medical marijuana program.
So far only one testing facility has been licensed and is only partially ready to test products. Plus, the health department’s program director still has another job — running the department’s Office Against Interpersonal Violence.
Health Department officials told the Board of Health on Wednesday that the agency is in a four-month “provisional” period with licensed marijuana businesses. As it finds problems or violations, it’s typically just issuing “corrective actions,” giving marijuana businesses a chance to straighten up without hitting them with fines or sanctions or calling in law enforcement.
The Health Department in a meeting with its board Wednesday pledged transparency in its oversight of medical marijuana, shortly before going into a closed door session to brief the board on specific active marijuana program investigations. During its public meeting, some board members’ questions were deferred to the upcoming executive session. ....... Rest of article.
30 comments:
Heaven forbid anyone actually delay implementing something until it can be properly staffed and set up. And I am sure that *cough, cough* politics has nothing to do with the rush to the effective date. Would it really have been that bad to wait a year? I know, I know, politics.....
BTW, one would like to think that the head of the Dept. Of Health could have chosen a better descriptive word than "constipated".....then again, right now this whole medical MJ thing is a pile of you know what, so maybe constipated is the right word.
Free The Land
It's high time to get off the pot with this pot thing. Mississippi has always had a huge problem jump-starting anything the Christian right opposes. Politicians have insisted on doing everything they can to stall, regulate, manage, oversee, block and tamper with the execution of this whole thing. It will wind up being a worse cluster-fuck than getting beyond alcohol was (and is) for this state.
Not pro or anti marijuana. However, I am pro Mississippi and we have some of the best farmers, farm land and cultivation practices in the country. The state (meaning the citizens) needs the money and relief. Regulations are fine but use Arizona as a medical use only guideline. Make dope a misdemeanor like a DUI and quit filling the jails with “gateway drug” users or dealers. We’ve got bigger issues to handle. And the commercial space, commercial revenue and employment opportunities - not to mention the peace it could bring to cancer patients. Get off the high horse and do something positive around here for our economy and our people suffering financially and physically.
Adults in suburbs surrounding Jxn are saving their kids from Fentanyl ODs by defeating mj, which is not only itself getting polluted with Fentanyl but entices youth and young adults to use coke and meth and oxy, etc.
We voted to accept the legal growth of “weed” and the powers that be in the gold dome overruled it. This has got to be and continues to be the most backward state in the union. It might be good that the people we are running out of Mississippi are thugs, but I haven’t seen any benefits. BTW, do the legislator and Senators, and support staff have a place to go to the bathrooms in the new capitol? Who is going to pick up the garbage?
4:21 & 5:01 - the crazy idea of starting upn a program in this manner was the legislature's; but it copied the same stupid timeframe that the pot growers put in their initiative. The Dept of Health had 90 days to publish regulations - which is not even legally possible with the requirements for pubic comments, and not practical with the work required. The Department was also given short timelines to provide licenses to all the various entities (growers, testers, sellers, etc.) but didn't give them exclusion from the state's personnel rules on hiring staff.
Yes, it is stupid to try to start up a major program such as this without having adequate time to find and hire the staff to do all the various job requirements. But that is what some in the legislature insisted on because the big dollars that were to be made from some of the corporate entities were too good to be passed up. And with the dozens and dozens of lobbyists that were working the members of the legislature, those dollars were well spent to get the program running before the investigators could be hired.
But I agree with Perry's comments here, that if someone has flaunted the law 0 which it certainly sounds like Mockenbird has and is doing - they should be stopped and penalized, not slapped on the wrist and told to do better tomorrow. Sure would like to hear how Dr. Edney could defend that they are not in violation when they are (according to MT) growing offsite, not in enclosed buildings and a total lack of security.
every breakout industry that is opposed by the green teeth christian wacko fringe will suffer at the hands of stinking buracrats and BS administrative agencies sent out to regulate them
it happened when alcohol was legalized back in the 60s, again when gaming was legalized in the early 90s , and once again now with the medical cannibus industry
mississippi proves yet again it is the most ass-backward state in the union
it doesnt matter to the state that medical cannibus was approved by 87 percent of the voters
remember that the next time you go to the polls to vote
free enterprise is a beautiful thing and can solve just about any problem ........until the government comes along and gets involved
Damn 8:38, you need to quit toking on that joint while you try to make statements. Gaming legalization seemed to go pretty damn good when it was approved back in 1992. The lottery rolled out damn smooth. And your 87% number is not off but by 30% (actual number was 57% but hey - you were close. Well no, actually, you weren't.
Not real sure what the problem with the 'breakout industry' of liquor was - because if you had actually been around at that time you would have recognized how much better it operated than prior to legalization. Those bootleggers that were operating but not regulated are similar to the drug boys that are sellig you your weed today, but of course you aren't a medical user so you won't be a customer of this 'breakout industry'
We would be in much better shape if Andy Gibson were in charge.
8:36 regrets Cannabis bureaucrats while enraged that these same haven't been hired in a timely enough fashion to suit him.
He bemoans the "cannibus" (sic) regulatory environment which features "Christian whacko fringe...buracrats" (sic) in this "most assbackward state"? Perhaps staffing is a challenge due to uneducated applicants who love "cannibus" more than English.
to 10:39,,,,,,,ahhhh yes, the grammar police strike yet again.
you dont know much mississippi history do you?
the only true growth industry in this state is government
maybe you could set up a government agency tasked with policing the kings english.
just think of all the tickets you could write
its going to get more interesting , Arkansas has recreational pot on the November ballot. thats a lot closer than Metropolis IL :) :)
@6:01... that is the most ridiculous statement I have ever read. NO ONE is putting Fentanyl in weed.
the roll-out of this program has been trash.
the shit show continues full steam ahead!
State employees themselves refer to their workplace as "slugdom". They dont do any work and they're proud of it. Nothing is expected, nothing is accomplished.
This marijuana thingy is going to be a biiiiiiiig money maker for the State. Just like the State's general fund filled to bulging when gambling -- er, 'scuse me, "gaming" was legalized, it's going to be the same thing with this marijuana thingy. And weed for funzies -- that is to say, recreational marijuana -- isn't far behind.
It's going to be big. Just you wait and see.
@9:16 AM
I retired from state employment in August 2020 after 30 years. And while I have seen plenty of lazy, worthless, and protected employees, nobody once bragged about it or called it “slugdom” in those 30 years. The problem is that once a precedent has been set that certain worthless individuals are untouchable, and even rewarded, it creates an atmosphere where nobody bothers to do more than the bare minimum required. There is almost no reward for excellence in state employment. Only slightly above average job security.
8:11 am
https://www.floridarehab.com/drugs/marijuana/addiction/marijuana-and-fentanyl/
Read it and weep, and mj frequently combined with other drugs which are even more likely to be cut with fentanyl, courtesy Biden's Cartel amigos.
This will all be a waste of money. A complete fad that isnt going to help the 99% illegitimate drug users who actually want this program. I dont want to hear any complaints when this doesnt work out.
@9:49 AM
You are talking about illegally purchased cannabis. Nobody running a legitimate cannabis dispensary with a storefront is lacing their products with fentanyl. Your low cognitive abilities is reminiscent of an adult suffering from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.
If they allow the yard weed to be sold in dispensaries, the program’s credibility is toast forever.
Big money may be on the line, but so is everything else.
"Around 1,100 patients have signed up for medical marijuana". 1,100 folks out of 3,000,000? Proves this is a scam. It is about legalizing weed and opening the door to other drugs.
The whole thing is a farce. Either MJ is a drug, or it isn't. If it isn't, regulate it like corn or soybeans. If it is, regulate it like prescription drugs, and sell through real pharmacists, not what amounts to package stores.
If “yard weed”, the poster earlier used that term which is hilarious, was sooooo profitable on the legal market, why are 8 out of 10 plants grown in Oklahoma mysteriously going in the black market. Wake up yard weeders. You aren’t going to make the money legally like you thought.
How bout government just stay the complete fuck out of it? It’s a plant, that grows out of the ground. Doesn’t need to be fucked with or processed in a lab. Also, mainly because this is America and we can do whatever the fuck we want. Eat a dick.
11;07 is right. If MSDH gets this wrong, Mississippi will be the laughingstock of cannabis in the United States not Oklahoma
Legalize everything and let the gene pool benefit.
You can take it to the bank that the real goal is to legalize recreational marijuana. It always starts out as "medical" marijuana, and once the sheeple get used to that idea, voila, here comes the legalized pot.
Yet we keep electing the same people expecting different results. Everyone with a clear mind knew this was going to be a clusterfuck. 90% on purpose and 10% is a result of how slow state agencies deliver tangible results.
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