Gov. Tate Reeves supports special session for medical marijuana | State Government

Earlier than touring an Ashley Furnishings manufacturing plant in Lee County, Reeves, the one one who can name legislators again into session earlier than January 2022, instructed members of the media that despite the fact that he was in opposition to the proposed medical marijuana initiative, he helps honoring the need of the overwhelming majority of Mississippians who voted in favor of it.

“I’ve been in dialog with numerous leaders throughout the Mississippi Legislature, and there are conversations ongoing about what a medical marijuana program ought to seem like,” Reeves mentioned.

The primary-term Republican governor mentioned he received’t name lawmakers again into session till many of the specifics may be labored out previous to a particular session.

“I can name them right into a particular session, and for $30,000 a day, they will sit round and speak and negotiate and decide what a medical marijuana plan can seem like,” Reeves mentioned. “Or I can’t name them in but, and for $0 a day, they will speak and negotiate and develop a plan.”

The Mississippi Supreme Courtroom final month dominated {that a} medical marijuana initiative that greater than 70% of voters supported was improperly positioned on the poll. The court docket additionally ended the state’s initiative course of over procedural points involving the state’s congressional districts.

Reeves additionally mentioned that he helps restoring the state’s initiative course of within the Structure in order that voters would have a mechanism to amend it, although he didn’t share specifics.

When the court docket tossed out the state’s initiative course of, a number of teams have been within the technique of making an attempt to position different initiatives similar to early voting and Medicaid enlargement on the poll.

Restoring the initiative course of would imply amending the state Structure. To efficiently change the Structure, a two-thirds majority of each chambers of the Legislature should approve of the modification, and a majority of voters should vote to approve it in an election.

The following recurrently scheduled statewide election in Mississippi will happen in November 2022, and Reeves indicated that he was not going to name a particular session to handle the method.

“The timing is rather less regarding with respect to that,” Reeves mentioned of the initiative course of.

The Senate Public Well being and Welfare Committee met earlier this month to debate what kind of medical marijuana program the state ought to undertake, in gentle of the court docket’s ruling.

Proponents of the medical marijuana initiative instructed lawmakers on the listening to that there have been some errors within the initiative that could possibly be tweaked, however the spirit of the initiative ought to nonetheless be put into state regulation by the Legislature.