When will medical marijuana licenses be issued in MS? Health dept. gives an update
A court fight over Initiative 65 is still underway, but that isn’t stopping the health department from working to meet its deadlines to set up a medical marijuana program in Mississippi.
On Tuesday, the state board of health met to discuss the program it is obligated to establish under Initiative 65, the constitutional amendment voters overwhelmingly approved in November. State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said the department is committed to meeting its deadlines to get the program launched this summer.
“I know a lot more about growing marijuana than I ever thought I would know,” Dobbs said. “We’re becoming experts at a rapid pace.”
The department is supposed to begin issuing patient ID cards and treatment center licenses by Aug. 15, 2021.
Members of the board campaigned against Initiative 65 in 2020, but Tuesday’s discussion was forward-looking, with no mention of the legal challenge still pending at the state Supreme Court, which could overturn Initiative 65.
The board approved a timeline Dobbs presented, under which the department is beginning work on a wide range of regulations this month and wrapping up in time to meet their first deadline of mid-July.
Initiative 65 supporters cheer timeline clarity
Conner Reeves, an attorney at McLaughlin, PC in Jackson and policy advisor to the Medical Marijuana 2020 Campaign, which led the push for Initiative 65, came away from the meeting considering “the outlook very sunny.”
“This is the clearest path we’ve seen so far, and seeing that there’s work going on, there’s a timeline, there’s objectives — that should give the industry-side but also patients a lot of comfort, knowing that this is moving forward, this is coming to Mississippi,” Reeves said.
Dobbs said the department had worked out initial funding for the program and expected that it would become revenue-neutral (the cost and revenue would balance out) once licenses are issued. The department is setting up an advisory committee comprised initially of people from other state agencies that will be involved in the program.
One hurdle: hiring full-time staff. Dobbs said that his department had not yet been authorized by the state personnel board to hire full-time employees, so it is relying on contractors until then.
Board members also discussed the issue of timing. Because operators won’t be able to start growing marijuana plants until they receive their licenses in late summer at the earliest, Mississippi patients probably won’t be able to buy cannabis in the state before January 2022 or later.
A list of key objectives for the program approved by the board included enabling distribution, protecting vulnerable populations, ensuring product safety, minimizing equity issues and excluding “criminal involvement.”
Board members also said they felt economic growth and opportunities for Mississippians in the industry should be priorities.
Initiative 65 requires all revenue from the program be funneled back into running the program, which is projected to run an annual surplus of $11 million. Because of the restrictions on the use of that money, it’s not clear how it will be spent.
Supporters of Initiative 65 say the jobs created in the new industry will provide a direct economic benefit to Mississippi communities.
A court challenge, a competing bill
The legal challenge before the state Supreme Court, that could overturn the program before it gets started, hinges on a technicality in the ballot initiative process.
The state’s ballot initiative process, written when Mississippi had five congressional districts, says signatures obtained in support of the initiative from any one congressional district must not exceed one-fifth of the total. Because Mississippi now has four districts, that’s mathematically impossible.
Madison Mayor Mary Hawkins Butler argues that this means Initiative 65 shouldn’t have been on the ballot and should be overturned.
Her suit is against Secretary of State Michael Watson, but other parties have weighed in by filing amicus briefs. The health department filed a brief that argued marijuana poses health risks and that running the program will be a burden on MSDH. The Mississippi State Medical Association and the American Medical Association are also urging the court to overturn Initiative 65.
An opposing brief — filed on behalf of a number of patients, Mississippi doctors and the Mississippi Sickle Cell Foundation — claims “there is a wealth of scientific evidence demonstrating the efficacy of medical marijuana for the treatment of a variety of debilitating illnesses.”
The Sickle Cell Foundation endorsed Initiative 65 during the campaign because cannabis may help treat intense pain associated with sickle cell disease.
Jeanne Tate, chair of the foundation, said the court fight was not unexpected.
“We kind of assumed that there was going to be some bumps in the road,” she said.
One big national group to throw its support behind Initiative 65 is Americans for Prosperity, a conservative-libertarian advocacy group funded by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch.
Their brief argues in part that overturning Initiative 65 on a technicality would be an “absurd outcome” and that the court should respect the will of the people.
The Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments in the case for April 14.
Meanwhile, the state Legislature, whose more restrictive cannabis constitutional amendment Initiative 65A was roundly rejected by voters, is considering a new medical cannabis bill. The sponsor of SB2765, state Sen. Kevin Blackwell (R-DeSoto, Marshall), has said his law would create a program to run in parallel to Initiative 65, unless Initiative 65 is struck down by the court.
It’s not clear how Blackwell’s proposed program could operate if Initiative 65 stands, because several provisions of SB2765 are directly at odds with Initiative 65, such as more restrictive zoning requirements. Blackwell did not respond to a phone call requesting comment.
Marijuana entrepreneurs said they aren’t concerned about the court challenge or the alternative legislation.
The organizers of Lucky Leaf Expo, a cannabis exposition company with events around the country, decided to double the size of their event in Jackson this October from 30,000 to 60,000 square feet because of the interest they were seeing from vendors.
“With this kind of stuff, once it passes, it’s very difficult to change,” said Chad Slaieh, a Lucky Leaf organizer and Mississippi native now living in Dallas, Texas.
Slaieh said cannabis entrepreneurs around the country are excited that Initiative 65 doesn’t create a cap on licenses. That means its medical market could potentially be similar to Oklahoma’s, which has the second-highest number of dispensaries per capita in the country, behind only Oregon.
“The last state anybody ever thought would do so well would be Oklahoma,” Slaieh said. “They’re still very conservative up there, but when it comes to cannabis they’re extremely liberal... I think everybody will just accept it at some point in Mississippi.”
