Mississippi Advocates Collect Signatures for Medical Cannabis Ballot
[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]T[/dropcap]hose who are spearheading a ballot initiative campaign in Mississippi to get medical cannabis added to the 2020 ballot claim they have collected two thirds of the necessary signatures to move forward.
According to the Clarion Ledger, a group who represents the ballot initiative, called Medical Marijuana 2020, is seeking to come up with 86,000 signatures for their upcoming Sept. 6 deadline. If the group fails to submit the required number of valid signatures to the secretary of state by that date, the initiative won’t make it onto the ballot.
However if Marijuana 2020 does pass, it would allow doctors to prescribe legal medical cannabis in Mississippi. The qualifying conditions would include cancer, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and chronic pain. The Mississippi Department of Health would regulate the program, and “treatment centers” would be the places where patients can buy their medicine.
In order for the signatures to be cleared, they must be evenly distributed, coming from all five congressional districts in the state. To gather them, the group has been knocking doors and attending community events to raise interest.
While the state may not be leading the charge when it comes to recreational cannabis, they have recently been getting on board medically. The University of Mississippi is currently conducting a CBD study to see how cannabis-based medicine can help children with severe and/or intractable epilepsy.
Another study is currently underway and examining whether hemp should be grown in the state as well. If they decide to grow hemp within the state’s borders, this should serve as a good complementary measure to a legal medical cannabis bill.
