Medical cannabis program in General Assembly

Mississippi state lawmakers will meet in Jackson for the 2022 General Assembly.

One hot topic is the state medical cannabis program that Republicans and Democrats agreed on in late September.

It was hoped that a special session would be called to sign the law, but Governor Tate Reeves' concerns about the law prevented such a session from being called.

After months of protests, some of which took place in front of the governor's house, the draft law is now being passed by the general assembly.

Pro-cannabis lawmakers and supporters have concerns that changes could be added to the bill.

"We want our bill passed," said Zack Wilson, vice president of We are the 74. "We want it passed quickly. If people want to change the bill, they can do it later, but they have to first we chisel something in stone. "

Reeves spoke up on Facebook just before last weekend and stated, "11 joints a day, every day, for anyone with an MJ card is too much! And I believe the potential of 100,000,000 joints PER MONTH is up the streets is more of a leisure program. "

Wilson, who represents the 74 percent of Mississippians who voted for a program in 2020, said Reeves' calculations were incorrect.

"Eleven joints weighing 3.5 grams is completely inaccurate," said Wilson. "I challenge anyone to call one of the thousands of pharmacies in the States and see if they can find a single one that sells a 0.3 gram cannabis cigarette."

On closer inspection, it seems that both are right in their own way.

There are surveys showing that the average use of marijuana in a joint is 0.33 g, while an NIH study from 2011 (Table 1) shows that the average use of marijuana users is 0.66 g per joint.

Aside from weight, there are also upper limits on the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content of the marijuana plant, which severely affects the ability to treat seriously ill people with the dose given to them.

"They've already lowered our THC levels to 60 percent (for cannabis concentrate) and 30 percent for flowers," said Wilson. "This is a huge blow to patients in need of stronger medicine for epileptic seizures, and you will force them to take more unnecessary doses of carrier products instead of leaving the medicine as pure as it is."

Reeves stated in the aforementioned Facebook post that one idea would be to "allow a pharmacist or doctor to make an exception and provide marijuana in higher quantities if necessary on a patient basis."

However, this is not provided for in the current legislation.

To go further, Wilson compares the programs to a neighboring Mid-South state to refute Reeves' "100,000,000 a month" statement.

"Arkansas has had a program since 2016 and they have 79,000 patients," said Wilson. "Tate keeps claiming that Mississippi will have 300,000 qualified patients overnight. That's just not true."

The Arkansas Department of Health confirms the patient numbers mentioned by Wilson.

Wilson is traveling to Jackson on Monday, where he and his group will meet with more than a dozen senators and a significant number of MPs to answer any questions lawmakers may have before the general assembly, he says.

The Mississippi General Assembly begins Tuesday.

Wilson says even if a program is passed on the first day, due to admission requirements and growth, it would still be seven months before the program could begin.