Tate Reeves, the governor of Mississippi, approved the new law earlier this year.
Four months after Mississippi’s Republican governor approved the proposal, the state’s new medicinal cannabis program began accepting applications last week.
Since last Wednesday, state residents who meet the requirements can apply for a medicinal cannabis card.
Local television station WLOX reports that the state Department of Revenue would begin issuing licenses for medical cannabis dispensaries only on July 1.
The following circumstances, according to the state’s Department of Health, could make a patient eligible to take part in the program: Alzheimer’s disease, agitation of dementia, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), autism, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, muscular dystrophy, glaucoma, spastic quadriplegia, positive status for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), hepatitis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, sickle-cell anemia,
Patients may also be eligible if they suffer from “a chronic terminal or debilitating disease or medical condition, or its treatment, that produces one or more of the following”: cachexia or wasting syndrome, chronic pain, severe or uncontrollable nausea, seizures, and severe and persistent muscle spasms, including but not limited to those linked to multiple sclerosis.
The law was created as a consequence of a 2020 ballot initiative that Mississippi voters supported, but that decision merely served as a preamble to a difficult implementation process. The ballot proposition was rejected by the state’s Supreme Court last year on the grounds that it was unconstitutional.
As a result, Mississippi’s lawmakers were able to create its own medicinal cannabis policy.
After debating the specifics of the law for more than a year, the state Senate and House of Representatives ultimately created a compromise bill in late January, which was then forwarded to GOP Governor Tate Reeves.
Reeves had often stated his desire for 2.7 grams per day as the maximum amount that medical cannabis patients could purchase. However, the legislation passed by MPs in January permits patients to buy as much as 3.5 grams up to six days per week.
Reeves was forced to sign it into law in February after it was passed with a veto-proof majority.
Reeves stated in a statement following the signing of the law, “The’medical marijuana bill’ has occupied an incredible amount of space on the front pages of the legacy media sources across Mississippi for the last three-plus years.”
“There is no question that there are people in our state who could live much better if they had access to cannabis in doses that were medically prescribed. There are also individuals who fervently support legalizing marijuana for recreational use, which could result in an increase in smoking and a decline in employment, as well as all the negative effects on society and the family that this would bring.
The law that is currently on my desk is not the one that I would have written, Reeves continued.
However, the governor noted that the legislators who drafted the final version of the bill (the 45th or 46th draft) made important adjustments to move us closer to achieving the ultimate aim.
Reeves did point out, however, some aspects of the bill that he did approve, such as a requirement that a “medical professional can only prescribe within the scope of his/her practice,” that the doctor must “have to have a relationship with the patient,” and that a prescription requires “an in-person visit by the patient to the medical professional.”
