It’s often easy to criticize the Mississippi Legislature, which like any group of elected officials is composed of people with vastly differing personalities and agendas. Sometimes this makes it seem their actual intent is to accomplish little of substance.
That is not the case, however, with the draft legislation of the Mississippi Medical Cannabis Act, which at a very early glance is far more thorough and superior to the constitutional amendment that voters approved last year.
It appears that lawmakers in charge of coming up with the proposal did their homework. They surely consulted laws in other states where medical marijuana is legal, and wrote many more details and specifics into the 144-page bill that the constitutional amendment lacked.
An essential improvement is the bill’s taxation of medical marijuana. Last year’s amendment did not require a tax, which was a giant error in judgment. If Mississippi is going to wade into this pond, there is no reason to go gently when it comes to the state treasury.
The bill applies both sales taxes and excise taxes to medical marijuana, just as the state already does with other “sin products” like cigarettes and alcohol.
There was a strong incentive to get this done: Last year, something like 75% of voters supported the medical marijuana amendment — an approval rate that no one, not even lawmakers with sharp political radar systems, could have foreseen.
Evidently a supermajority of Mississippi voters have seen an ailing family member or friend suffer from an illness or harsh medical condition. They decided that something among the many medical marijuana products could alleviate their pain and should be legal.
But a few months ago, the state Supreme Court threw out the results of the marijuana referendum. The mayor of Madison filed suit and argued successfully that a flaw in the mechanism of gathering signatures for a vote, related to the number of congressional districts in the state, made the whole process invalid.
The proposed bill addresses local officials’ concerns by allowing county supervisors and municipal boards to prohibit the cultivation, processing, sale or distribution of medical marijuana products. However, the prohibition also includes a citizen-override option if enough people petition for a referendum.
The bill almost certainly has provisions that some people won’t like. It may not be perfect, but there are a lot of good things in it that will allow the state to venture into the new and unexpected field of medical commerce.
The Legislature does deserve criticism for failing to act on this issue two or three years ago. Instead, lawmakers chose to do nothing, effectively betting that voters would reject medical marijuana at the ballot box.
The lesson here is that lawmakers mistakenly gave up control of a hot-button issue. But the Supreme Court ruling gave them a second chance. They appear to have made the most of it.
Jack Ryan is the publisher and editor-in-chief of the Enterprise-Journal.
