Advocates are cautiously optimistic as medical marijuana bill is filed in Senate

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) -Mississippians are still waiting to see what will happen with medical marijuana. That means all eyes are on the legislature this session.

The Senate’s medical marijuana bill is now officially filed as of late this afternoon. Still, it has a long way to go.

It’s been one week since the clock started ticking on the 2022 legislative session. That first day medical marijuana advocates lined the hallways and made their way into the gallery, hopeful to see their mission through.

“We thought we had won that journey with Mississippi in 2020,” said We Are The 74 President Bethany Hill.

They’re still cautiously optimistic, but some are frustrated, particularly by the Lt. Governor’s latest comments.

“So, it has distracted us to some degree, I think, from other issues that we should be addressing here in Mississippi,” noted Lt. Governor Hosemann Monday. “And quite frankly, it has led to a very scrutinized bill which is good, but has also led to us not paying attention to a lot of other things.”

“And now they have the gall to say that they’re distracted, too, and can’t do other stuff,” responded Shea Dobson, Executive Director of Citizens Alliance of Mississippi. “I would have to say to him, ‘the nerve of you, the nerve of you to talk about distraction when you have patients throughout this entire state, who are having their entire voice in the entire integrity of our election completely disregarded.’”

Bethany Hill is back in Jackson from North Mississippi, again hoping she’ll be in town to see legislation starting to move through the process.

“We hope for the best, and we prepare for the worst,” explained Hill. “Obviously, we kind of had to get used to that after the Supreme Court decision. But I think we finally are reaching those finish lines that we’ve been working really hard for. It’s been a really long journey for a lot of patients, and they’ve suffered and hurt and been criminals having to stay criminals in a state that told them they didn’t have to be anymore. The voters said, ‘You’re not a criminal anymore.’ And then the Supreme Court said, now you’re so it’s, we’re rescuing people across the board.”

The Governor’s concerns focus around the amount of marijuana allowed per person in the proposal. We did a quick search of this recently filed bill, and it still includes that 3.5 grams that the Governor opposes.

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