Mississippi Voters To Decide On Medical Marijuana

If you have family and friends whom reside in Mississippi, the following will be of particular interest to you.

If not, it will still be of significant interest. We’ll explain why momentarily.

First, some background.

This year, Mississippians will have the opportunity to vote on whether, or not, they want to avail themselves, their loved ones, and friends, of the opportunity to use cannabis to treat the symptoms of their diseases.

The bill which would bring Medical Marijuana to Mississippi is called Initiative 65. The bill is fully written, and is not a mere hollow proposal. Establishing a complete infrastructure, Initiative 65 thoroughly lays out the plans by and through which cannabis would become available to medically qualifying Mississippians, including the regulatory agency and mechanism, the taxation structure, prescriptive authority, distributive network, farming and production facilities, product safety testing mandates, and more.

Mississippi, like some other states, has a public initiative process by and through which citizens have the ability to facilitate legislative action outside of their legislature. It is a direct type of democratic involvement, which for them is ensconced in their State Constitution. The Mississippi Secretary of State’s website writes explicitly that, “The Mississippi initiative law affords voters an avenue for addressing important constitutional issues which the State Legislature does not.”

The site further references the qualifying conditions that must be met in order for any prospective measure to be placed on the ballot – and win – by stating that,

“for an initiative measure to be placed on the ballot, a minimum of 106,190 certified signatures must be gathered with at least 21,238 certified signatures from each of the five congressional districts as they existed in the year 2000. Signatures must be certified by county circuit clerks. A completed petition is filed with the Secretary of State’s Office, along with a $500 filing fee. Not only must an initiative receive a majority of the total votes cast for that particular initiative, it must also receive more than 40% of the total votes cast in that election.”

Suffice it to say, the state law establishes a very high standard which prospective initiative measures must meet in order for them to be placed on the ballot, and then to pass. Whereas in most other states, a simple majority is often all that’s required for any candidate or measure to win, or to pass, in Mississippi, that state’s Initiative Law requires that IN ADDITION TO meeting all other qualifying conditions, it must be voted upon by AT LEAST 40.1% of all voters/ballots cast.

For purposes of illustration – if there are 100 TOTAL voters/ballots cast in an election, and only 30 out of the 100 voters voted on the measure (called an “undervote,” a condition in which all voters do not bother to vote on a particular race or measure), and voted for it to pass, and the nay votes were -0- (zero), despite the 30-0 victory margin, it will NOT pass, because it did NOT “receive more than 40% of the total votes cast in that election.”

Again, despite the fact that more voters voted FOR the measure to pass, than voted against it (which in this example would be zero -0-), or did NOT vote upon it, the measure still would not be considered to have passed.

Enter Mississippians for Compassionate Care.

Comprised of 76 diverse individuals from a variety of backgrounds including Physicians, Nurse Practitioners and Professors, Registered Nurses, Republican and Democratic politicians, Party Executive Committee members, State Legislators, and Local Officials from both major parties, Ministers, retired Military Service members, Business Owners and Executives, District Attorneys, retired Law Enforcement Officers, and more, they are the members of the steering committee which are guiding the measure called Initiative 65 which, if approved by voters, would establish a Medical Marijuana Law in Mississippi.

Initiative 65 is a well-though-out bill, one which is thoroughly considered, and the bill for the prospective measure contains practically every aspect of consideration which would be involved in establishing an entire infrastructure for Medical Marijuana.

The bill MS Initiative 65 Proposed Measure may be read/downloaded here.

Enter the Mississippi State Legislature.

Over the years, in over 20 attempts, the state’s legislators quashed every effort to help the people, and not once did they ever allow any of the measures regarding medical marijuana to be brought to the floor for a vote. They all proverbially “died in committee,” meaning that every one of the bills were assigned to a committee, and were never voted out of the committee.

That’s when over 228,000 Mississippians decided that they’d had enough, and signed onto the citizen-led legislative initiative which became known as Initiative 65.

Screenshot of the status of Mississippi HCR39, which created Alternative 65A.

Re-enter the Mississippi State Legislature.

Displeased with the idea that The People of Mississippi might actually pass a measure which for years the Legislature ignored, the largely-Republican dominated legislature – 36/52 Senators, and 74/122 Representatives – authored HCR39 (House Concurrent Resolution) in the 2020 Regular Session which would effectively provide confusion to the voter, and hopefully thereby scuttle The People’s Initiative 65.

The legislature was successful, and passed HCR39 (House Concurrent Resolution), which was signed by the governor, and thereby created “Alternative 65A” which would appear on the November 2020 ballot.

And as if that weren’t enough, by deliberately creating an “alternative” to Initiative 65, the Mississippi State Legislature knew in advance that by so doing, their actions would further confuse the matter by requiring the voters who supported the matter, to vote on the matter TWICE – FIRST, by VOTING FOR APPROVAL OF EITHER, and then, by VOTING FOR ONE, OR, THE OTHER.

But wait!

That’s not all!

The text of HCR39 as sent to the Mississippi State Governor – HC0039SG – official document – is but a shell of a bill, a sham piece of legislation, because it contains NO SPECIFICS of any kind about any matter pertaining to medical marijuana.

That is NOT accidental.

It was DELIBERATE.

If the Legislature’s Alternative 65A passes, the Legislature could effectively twiddle their thumbs, continue to waste The People’s time, and STILL DO NOTHING toward bringing medical marijuana to Mississippians who would benefit from it, and desperately need it.

Alternative 65A is not even 4 full pages of text (plenty of empty space), and if you’ll take just a moment to read it – it won’t take even 3 minutes to fully read it – you’ll see for yourself, and understand why Alternative 65A is hollowed-out shell of nothingness – a genuinely miserable excuse of legislation, because it provides NO SPECIFICS.

Here’s a quick comparison of the two.

The contrast is striking, and stark. The differences could NOT be more clear.

Mississippi United States Representative Mr. Steven Palazzo (R-4) wrote an OpEd which appeared on the website News Mississippi October 23, 2020 in which he attempts to sway voters opinion on the matter.
https://newsms.fm/palazzo-why-im-voting-no-on-medical-marijuana/

There is a growing body of overwhelming evidence demonstrating the efficacy of cannabis use in the treatment of various diseases or conditions, and it seems perverse to any casual observer that the Mississippi State Legislature would deliberately attempt to thwart voter intent by deliberately confusing the matter.

Following is a rebuttal to Representative Mr. Palazzo’s OpEd.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

For numerous scientifically and medically valid reasons, I respectfully disagree with Mississippi U.S. Representative Steven Palazzo’s (R-4) opinion on Medical Marijuana.

His OpEd in News Mississippi presumes Mississippians are either too dumb, too lazy, or too ignorant to know when their legislature is deliberately playing voters for a fool, attempting to thwart their Constitutionally-authorized means to initiate legislative matters from legislators whom are deaf and unresponsive to the people they purport to represent and serve, and he cites no medically valid or scientific evidence to support his case.

The MS Secretary of State’s website plainly states that “The Mississippi initiative law affords voters an avenue for addressing important constitutional issues which the State Legislature does not.”

It begs the question: Why do legislators think an “alternative” to voters’ ballot initiative is necessary?

The answer to that question is discomforting, for it neither engenders confidence in the current slate of legislators, nor in their allegedly altruistic service.

His encouragement for voters to support Alternative 65A is exclusively meant to usurp voter intent by obfuscating the fact that Alternative 65A is no “alternative” at all because it has no provisions of any kind whatsoever to help anyone, and is but a mere political apparition, a specter, a mirage, a macabre mockery of legislation which offers nothing of any value to voters, or legislators – and certainly not to patients crying out for care. If there was such a thing as legislative malpractice, the authors and legislative sponsors of Alternative 65A would find themselves being called by another name – defendant.

This year again, the Drug Enforcement Administration has officially stated in their resource guide “Drugs of Abuse” that, “No deaths from overdose of marijuana have been reported.”

The same cannot be said of ethanol – beverage alcohol – or even of water.

Already, THC, the solitary psychoactive component in cannabis – in dronabinol, a synthetic, man-made, optically reversed form branded as Marinol® – is used as a by-prescription-only appetite stimulant, and antiemetic adjunct to chemotherapy. And CBD, which is scientifically proven to relieve intractable seizure disorder, thereby preserve and improve quality of life without harmful side effects, is one of many non-psychoactive constituent cannabinoids, and is to date, the ONLY FDA-approved medicine to have come from a plant in its unchanged biological form, which is branded as Epidiolex®.

When Representative Mr. Palazzo writes of “America’s new marijuana capital in our own backyard” he must be referring to the 12-acre plot on the campus of the University of Mississippi in Oxford which remains the United States government’s only official source of cannabis for research, and has been since 1968.

Deploying fear-baiting scare tactics in his OpEd which bear no semblance to the truth, his intended prey are those whom he presumes are gullible, ignorant, and lazy – Mississippians with health disorders whom he would again victimize by denying them their right to try humanely compassionate care. And like the cartoon character “Mighty Mouse” of yesteryear, after he falsely and colorfully paints his version of a worst possible fantasy scenario, here he comes to save the day with a tired, worn-out old mantra – just say no.

In 2017, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) published “The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids: The Current State of Evidence and Recommendations for Research,” which remains among the most authoritative volumes on the subject. According to that report, “There is conclusive or substantial evidence that cannabis or cannabinoids are effective for the treatment of chronic pain in adults.”

Dr. Yasmin Hurd, MD, PhD, Director of the Addiction Institute, and Ward-Coleman Chair of Translational Neuroscience of Mount Sinai in NYC led a double-blind study of 42 recovering heroin addicts and found that CBD reduced both cravings and cue-based anxiety, both of which can cycle people back into using heroin.

In 2016, the United Nations estimated that 3.9% of the world’s population (approximately 192.2 million people) used cannabis products, which data suggests was a 16% increase compared with estimates of the previous decade. Cannabis has been safely used for eons, either for its fiber for cordage or garments, as paper, as fodder, as medicine, and recent biological evidence of its use has even been found upon ancient Jewish altars in archaeological excavations in the Negev desert in the Kingdom of Judah, where it was burned ceremonially as a form of worship to YHWH at the entrance to the “holy of holies.”

The matter of cannabis’ illegality is only a recent, modern occurrence, having begun in 1937 in the United States which spread worldwide, and was rooted in blatant racism – hatred of Hispanics and Blacks.

There is no legitimate reason to deny patients their “right to try,” to relieve human suffering, or to access compassionately humane care.

It’s time to “Just Say Yes,” and to vote YES on Initiative 65.