Mississippi is one of three states that will vote on some type of marijuana-related referendum in the November 2020 elections – the others being New Jersey and South Dakota. Up to eight additional states could get referendum before their votes in 2020, but so far only three states are certain to pose marijuana questions to their citizens this year.
Eleven states and the District of Columbia – Alaska, California, Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington – have adopted the most liberal laws legalizing marijuana for recreational use.
A larger group of states including Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Utah, and West Virginia have legalized the use of medical marijuana only in variable amounts under variable conditions.
So what marijuana referendums are on the ballot in November? New Jersey is voting on legalization of recreational use of marijuana. South Dakota is voting on legalizing both recreational and medical marijuana use on the same ballot.
Mississippi voters will face the question of legalized medicinal marijuana use on a broader scale on the November ballot. Medical marijuana is already legal in Mississippi in the narrowest of senses and has been since 2014. Legal, yes. Available? Not really. Former Republican Gov. Phil Bryant signed Mississippi’s very narrow current medical marijuana bill into law in 2014 with help from some of the state’s most conservative lawmakers.
The namesake of the bill – Harper Grace’s Law – was Harper Grace Durval, a child enduring Dravet Syndrome, a rare and particularly difficult form of epilepsy. Harper Grace’s Law was supposed to allow the Durval child and other children like her to obtain treatment with cannabis oil at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Clinical trials have been conducted with a limited number of patients with good results. UMMC announced in July 2019 a one-year extension of the clinical trial of a new marijuana-derived drug to treat seizures in children.
The broad-cased referendum effort called Medical Marijuana 2020 in Mississippi has a fighting chance. The proposed referendum petitioners collected the 86,185 valid signatures necessary to put the referendum on the 2020 statewide ballot. The group proposes to “make medical marijuana available to Mississippians who have debilitating medical conditions.”
Who would qualify for medical marijuana under this proposed law? Those with “cancer, epilepsy and other seizures, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, multiple sclerosis, PTSD, HIV, AIDS, chronic pain, ALS, glaucoma, Crohn’s disease, sickle-cell anemia, autism with aggressive or self-injurious behavior, spinal cord injuries, and similar diseases.”
Who would decide who can get medical marijuana? “Physicians will have the option to certify the use of medical marijuana as part of a treatment after examining the patient. With a licensed physician’s certification, a patient would obtain an identification card from the Mississippi Department of Health and medical marijuana from a regulated treatment center, which will be the only place medical marijuana would be available.”
Medical Marijuana 2020 doesn’t have a fighting chance in November because of old hippies – it has a chance because of grandparents and parents of children with epilepsy or autism, spouses of cancer patients, multiple sclerosis sufferers and those who experience seizures.
My late father endured Parkinson’s for20 years. My late wife suffered the ravages of multiple sclerosis for 23 years before her death in 2005. I battled stage IV Burkitt’s Lymphoma blood cancer in 2017, taking eight rounds of intensive EPOCH-R chemotherapy that eventually put me in remission and extended my life.
Would either of us have used medicinal marijuana in our journeys had it been legal? I honestly don’t know. But we - and others who will certainly follow us into the dark valley of those dread diseases and others - ought to have the choice to ease our pain or side effects with that substance if we and medical personnel believe it will help.
Sid Salter is a syndicated columnist. Contact him at sidsalter@sidsalter.com.
Wednesday, February 5, 2020
Sid Salter: Weed Politics in Mississippi
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40 comments:
This becomes the law of the land. The support is evident by them exceeding the necessary signatures.
The next hurdle will be legalization for personal use. Which I predict could happen on a national level with the next Congress.
Unless scientists can prove that marijuana is just as safe as a cold beer and a can of snuff, I think that we ought to keep this devil weed out of the hands of God's children.
Marijuana is evil and those of you advocating it’s legalization will have to answer for this one day. Gateway drug that fuels the opioid crisis and destroys lives. Shame on you KF for promoting this garbage.
I used weed in Vietnam in 1970 while over at Danang during Christmas season.
This mind altering stuff relieved the stress of war.
We had a Test Tube brush Christmas tree with colorful lights on the limbs.
After doing a joint I was staring at the this tree & all of the sudden the blinking light slowwwwed down. I laughed till I almost puked. This weed really altered your awareness. And, it does give you the munchies. Also, hate to see someone stoned & trying to drive. The stoned drive wouldn't get past 10 miles per hour. I'm against legal use of this stuff for recreation purpose. Why put a thief in your mouth to steal your brains?
Bernie has already said if he gets elected, it will be made legal with an executive order on his first day in office. I expect other candidates will have to get on board with the American public’s overwhelming support and piss off the pharmaceutical donors.
I fought a life threatening disease. Doctors told me I could purchase $24 k medicine a year that has had mixed results and would not be covered by insurance. One day his PA pulled me aside and told me that someone worried about liability issues and losing their license
Might have told her to recommend cannabis discretely. Within 6 months, the life threatening inflammation had miraculously retreated without medicine- as had the devastating nausea and muscle spasticity. Not even being a drinker I would have never gone this route. The Dr. said it was amazing how I recovered as he winked and made a “ toking- like” gesture. Was it a gateway drug? Hardly, it only made me a temporary criminal that is living while others that went with the medicine died a debilitating death.
I do wonder what happened to my suppliers that saved my life. They went out of their way to get me the right strains. In the eyes of LEO they were criminals; in mine lifesavers.
Marijuana is not heroin or cocaine. It's a natural plant. It has been illegal too long.
A prison industry has been built around criminalizing this plant. That I dusty is a drain on the taxpayer.
An industry built on legalized cannabis would create taxable revenue instead of draining resources from the taxpayer.
I don't think it'll pass, but I'll vote for it anyway.
If people are legitimately using it for medical purposes of any kind the FDA needs to reschedule it. Drug use on the job just like drinking on the job presents so much employer liability that the fears of people randomly stoned all the time is hand wringing. Everyone that wants to smoke it recreationally is already doing so. Might as well get 7% of what is now a taxless black market.
Shame on me? All I did was post a syndicated weekly column.
This becomes the law of the land. The support is evident by them exceeding the necessary signatures.
Same thing the proponents for Initiative 26 said. How'd that turn out?
Unless scientists can prove that marijuana is just as safe as a cold beer and a can of snuff, I think that we ought to keep this devil weed out of the hands of God's Children
You covered all of the bases of emotional appeal.
But kidding aside. Sheriff's Offices make too much money with Civil Asset Forfeiture and the Prison industrial Complex is too influential.
It will take the overwhelming support of the people to upset these two entrenched opponents of freedom.
I'm not worried about the bible thumpers. The loudest ones are usually hypocrites.
Sorry pal, Papaver somniferum is a natural plant too.
Good ole Sid (and KF). Always toting water for the collectivist/socialist/Communist/Establishment/anti-American agenda. I guess it's not enough just to destroy the education system; they have to inject their poison directly into our children's brains.
Part of the problem is the ban on marijuana research.
LOL@ "god's children".. Superstitious hick.
FACT...when medical cannabis of the appropriate type is used as directed patient reliance on opiate drugs declines drastically and rapidly. I recall seeing an article that stated that some Mississippi counties have more opiate prescriptions that residents!
Have a look at some peer-reviewed studies. https://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/peer-reviewed-studies-on-medical-marijuana/
The UMC study. https://www.umc.edu/news/News_Articles/2019/07/CBD-Trial.html
“We found no significant safety issues,” said Ingram, UMMC associate professor of pediatric neurology and director of the UMMC Pediatric Comprehensive Epilepsy Program. “Some of the trial participants are at the status quo, and some have had a really good response to the drug. All of the participants, though, seem to have some positive outcome, such as more pleasant mood or sleeping better.
“Even with patients whose seizure counts are unchanged, parents said their children are happier,” Ingram said. “We had a teenage patient say ‘mom’ to their mother for the first time ever. We had patients whose parents were able to take them to the grocery store for the first time.” Let that sink in you repugnant hicks that would deprive a parent's autistic child at a chance for a better life. Read it again.
I don't smoke marijuana.. Never have.I am 100% an advocate for it's use for those that need it. For those that are able to achieve any kind of relief from their medical malady I say LET THEM HAVE IT WITH UNOBSTRUCTED ACCESS!
Devils advocate: castor beans are natural too. The "natural" argument is just as asinine as those screaming about the moral failings of legalization.
@9:39
Which opiod do you have a prescription for?
11:12 @ 11:40
Both of you make references to natural plants but you're using a false dichotomy.
Both plants you reference require processing and concentration to create unlawful substances.
When I say cannabis is natural I mean it can grow wild from bird droppings on your property without your knowledge or cultivation and you could lose your property through asset Forfeiture if the law discovers your natural "grow op"
I would expect that anyone that wants to smoke this crap can do so anytime they want. So why not do a rifle shot medical-only offering to those it will help, even though this entire effort is a Joel Bomgar get richer scheme for him and his "investors".
Every single person I know (both family and friends) that is/was a drug-addict started with marijuana, then progressed to a better/bigger high. I get there might be some who have a legitimate medical need; but, in our society ignorance and selfishness runs rampant. I don’t trust our current society to make good choices about usage.
How will employers monitor usage if full legalization is pushed through? MS’s workforce is already struggling to provide productive workers. What about the impact on liability insurance for both individuals and private businesses given there is impairment with usage? What a nightmare!!
There are reasons Mississippi is dead last! Most of them you can view right here on this very well run blog!
"safe as a cold beer and a can of snuff"... Did you forget "gawd's children" that have been killed from alcohol-related wrecks?What about alcohol-related disease? What about oral cancer from your hillbilly snuff?
I defy anyone to show me a fatal auto accident where the official cause of the accident was ruled to be from marijuana intoxication.
Again...
I don't smoke marijuana.. Never have.I am 100% an advocate for it's use for those that need it. For those that are able to achieve any kind of relief from their medical malady I say LET THEM HAVE IT WITH UNOBSTRUCTED ACCESS!
I think the hypocrisy is amazing on this issue.
"Hell no the government can't tell me what to do!!!"
"But that wacky tobaccie is just plain wrong!! By da Good Lord ABOVE... You're goin ti haaale if ya inhale. That stuff should stay banned!!!"
I don't smoke weed, don't like weed, and wouldn't waste my time with it. But, why would I care if someone else wants to do it? As long as they don't endanger the public, who cares?
If, it is a gateway drug for opiods...THEN,,, water is the first drink to becoming an alcoholic.
@1:16- You must not have any/many drug-addicts or alcoholics in your family. The comparison of water to marijuana is just plain dumb.
Why are so many people having a hard time understanding that this isn't about legalizing marijuana for recreational users who want to smoke the devil's weed and join in on one of those hippy drum circles? It's about making it accessible to people who are suffering and their doctor agrees that marijuana is a suitable treatment. If you're actually a doctor someone might be interested in your opinion, but the average goober on the street has no frame of reference.
I have posted on this blog about this subject before. I have two children who suffer from seizures and who use medical cannibis, or THC oil, which has practically eliminated their seizures. If you have ever seen or experienced a seizure, they are horrific and are life changing. One of my children had to drop out of school and was not able to hold a job for 5 years until he started taking the THC. Without it, he would have been forced to live on disability.
Most of you, as well as most of the general public, are missing the point. What they are trying to have legalized is THC OIL. Again, an OIL,which is a small drop that is applied under the tongue. It does not make you high. It is not a weed that is smoked or vaped. Again, it is an oil. CBD oil is now legal in every state. It is THC that is illegal. It is not addictive, nor does it impair anyone's judgement.
The University of Mississippi was instrumental in doing the research on this drug and has been doing so for at least 40 years. For ANY state to continue to have THC oil illegal is insane. However, legalizing regular marijuana for recreational use is an entirely different subject.
And, I am not a crazy ex-hippie. I am a parent who would do anything for their child just like the rest of you.
As the grandparent of one of Dr. Ingram's patients, I will sign any petition, back any legislator and move any mountain to keep my grandson on his medication. Since being on prescription marijuana, he has come off of 3 strong seizure meds with awful side effects. His personality has returned and he is able to sit through more classroom time and retain what is being taught.
I would encourage anyone to look into these studies on our own children at UMMC and the good outcomes before you lump your decisions into thinking they are just sitting back smoking weed.
The people griping about the intitiative get no sympathy from me at all.
They weren't interested in playing fair or nice. A group tried to get a reasonable bill passed at the legislature to help some kids suffering from seizures. The know-nothings did everything they could to kill the bill then when it passed, they managed to sabotage it behind the scenes. The legislature had to fix that, if I remember correctly. There is no way someone could get a reasonable med marijuana bill introduced today. The chairmen would never allow it to come up for a vote. The cops would show up in force in the legislature. When he held power, Fisher and his crew would get the legislature to kowtow to whatever he wanted.
So some people got sick of their crap and put it on the ballot. Tough luck. They had their chance. They didn't want to work out something reasonable, now they are going to get something they really don't like. Mississippi's Deep State can go screw itself.
@1:28. Perhaps the gateway drugs are really alcohol or tobacco or even caffeine. Some people have addictive personalities. It makes no difference what their first “drug” was. Hell, People these days are treated for addictions to video games and exercise. Makes no sense to outlaw those too since a couple people can’t handle their obsessive impulses.
1:53 - you almost make the case AGAINST this so-called "Medical" Marijuana crap.
Your kids are helped by a "prescription" of a legal drug that is available under prescription from a doctor.
There are four prescription drugs available derived either from THC or CDB - the beneficial parts of the marijuana plant. That exists today for your kids, and others for whom the doctors think it will benefit.
But this Bomgar Get Rich Again concept is not "Medical", it is a hidden way to make it recreational.
Medicine is prescribed by a doctor. This pot bill is not prescribed. It is a license to purchase.
Medicine is prescribed for a particular strength, and it is dosed for intake on certain intervals and a specific amount each day.
This pot is neither - the purchaser decides what strength he/she wants, and when and how to "take" it.
The ridiculous part of this proposal is the amount - 2.5 ounces every 14 days is what any purchaser can have. No matter what their condition; no matter the strength, or how much to use on any particular day or hour.
2.5 ounces equates to 14 to 16 JOINTS EVERY DAY. Hell, with paraphrase the newly employed Hinds County Lobbyist, Kenny Wayne -- that's not medicine, that's a good party!
15 joints a day, when research shows that one joint produces an effect for up to four hours is not medicine.
And for a state that spends millions of dollars a year trying to talk people out of smoking, and is currently trying to stop vaping as well - Bomgar and his investors are now wanting to put smoking and vaping as a right in our state constitution.
ITT: lots of people who've never left Mississippi. Never visited a state that has decriminalized cannabis for over a decade. It's not going to destroy your strong Christian family just like the lotto hasn't and legal liquor didn't.
@2:49 has a bromance crush on Bomgar, sounds jelly!
@9:39, I agree Rabbi! Bam the demonic plant! Get down to your local liquor store and buy completely safe, non-poisonous alcohol! Oy vey!
@2:49 Absolutely correct. Free people should only be able to ingest what the government says we can. We should have ZERO choice in the matter. Pharmaceutical companies have our best interests in mind and we should o ya be able to consume what they provide. God bless government. -George Washington
"After all, it's only a weed that turns to a flower in your mind" -- Thomas Benton
Let's see if the same people who defer to the people's vote on keeping the confederate state flag accept the overwhelming vote to support the decriminalization of medicinal cannabis products.
Alcohol has ruined way more lives than cannabis.
The opioid crisis was brought to you by Doctors and the pharmaceutical industry.
Jeffrey Epstein did not kill himself.
Joel Bomgar needs to lead a fact finding trip to Colorado with key members of the legislature to investigate the benefits of decriminalization.
I have a feeling that if said legislators saw how much revenue was being collected they would legalize it within 48 hours.
These numbers are YUGE!
https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/revenue/colorado-marijuana-tax-data
There should be no need for a referendum, the legislature should just make it legal. It will reduce our opioid epidemic and many sick people will be helped. Why not? Pharmaceutical money going to legislators? Sheriff’s departments that want to bust and ruin lives og 29 year olds with marijuana? Just pass it.
I continue to be amazed how many people make dire predictions based on debunked theories.
It was easier to understand deliberate ignorance when facts weren't at our fingertips.
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