Mississippi governor says more changes needed before special session to address medical marijuana

Governor Tate Reeves has not yet announced when he will call a special session of the legislature to create a new medical marijuana program in the state. Mississippians voted last year to create a program, however the constitutional amendment was overturned by the state supreme court. Reeves said in September that he would call a session once lawmakers were complete in drafting a bill to create a medicinal cannabis program, but he says there are remaining issues he would like to see addressed before calling that session.

Reeves says the bill that was originally written by lawmakers forbid the Department of Public Safety from having a role in the state’s potential medical marijuana industry.

“Clearly I wasn’t going to agree to that, so we’ve made some necessary improvements to the bill, but we haven’t gotten to the point where I am comfortable yet in ensuring that we have a program that is truly ‘medical mariuana’ that has strict rules in place.”

Governor Reeves says he is also in talks with lawmakers about adding additional restrictions on how much marijuana someone can purchase if they do qualify for the program. He says without these restrictions, the state may be closer to having a recreational marijuana industry. [Read more at Mississippi Public Radio]