Mississippi Protesters: Revive Medical Marijuana Proposal | Jackson Free Press

People protested near the Mississippi Capitol and the state Supreme Court building on Tuesday to demand that Governor Tate Reeves convene lawmakers for a special session to restore a medical marijuana initiative that voters approved in November and whose judges were recently overthrown. Photo courtesy Esteban Lopez on Unsplash

JACKSON, miss. (AP) – People protested near the Mississippi Capitol and the state Supreme Court building on Tuesday to demand that Governor Tate Reeves convene a special session of lawmakers to restore a medical marijuana initiative that the Voters approved in November and whose judges were recently overturned.

In the May 6-3 ruling of May 14, the state’s Supreme Court also invalidated the entire Mississippi initiative process that allows citizens to petition to bring issues to a statewide vote. The judges said the process was out of date so the medical marijuana proposal was not properly on the ballot.

About 1.3 million people voted in Mississippi in November, and more than 766,000 of them voted for the medical marijuana proposal, Initiative 65. That is about 10,000 more people than in November for then-President Donald Trump, who was in Mississippi in spite of all that easily won his race for losing a second term.

A handwritten sign on Tuesday read, “New Math: 6 (is greater than) 766K.”

Brandon Allen, 35, a Pearl military veteran, sat with a sign that read “Special Session Now Tater Tot”. Allen said he knew veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and that marijuana could help them.

“I don’t think the government should tell people how to and how not to live,” Allen said in an interview just before a band started playing the Willie Nelson song at the event: “Roll Me Up and.” Smoke Me When I Die “. “

Mississippi is in the minority of states with no medical marijuana program. The annual legislature session ended in early April. Only the governor can call them back to the Capitol and decide what issues to consider. Republican Reeves has given no indication that he will call her back to consider passing a medical marijuana bill.

Madison Mayor Mary Hawkins Butler turned down Initiative 65 because it restricted cities’ ability to regulate the location of marijuana businesses. She and the City of Madison sued the state shortly before the November election, arguing that Mississippi’s initiative process was flawed and that the medical marijuana proposal should not be on the ballot.

A majority of the judges agreed with their arguments. At the center of their decision is the fact that the Mississippi Initiative Process, written in the 1990s, requires people to collect one-fifth of the signatures from each congressional district. Mississippi had five counties at the time this was written, but stagnant population meant the state fell to four counties as of the 2000 census. The language dealing with the initiative process was never updated, and Butler’s lawyers argued that requiring one-fifth out of four districts is mathematically impossible.

When a speaker mentioned butler during Tuesday’s protest, many people booed.

DeAndrea Delaney runs companies that sell hemp products in Mississippi, and she said on stage at the protest that voting for the medical marijuana initiative united people across lines they traditionally share.

“Cannabis – there is no gender gap. There’s no racial gap, ”Delaney said. “There is no red. There is no blue. Today it’s all about the green. “