Column by Jack Ryan
The Mississippi Today website had an interesting column recently about ongoing negotiations in Jackson over a medical marijuana bill.
The legislation is expected to be considered in 2022 in response to this year’s Mississippi Supreme Court ruling that invalidated a voter-approved medical marijuana program. The topic won a referendum by a surprisingly wide 3-to-1 margin in the 2019 general election.
The column by Geoff Pender noted that lawmakers have been working for a long time to reach agreement on the legislation. Gov. Tate Reeves has said he’s ready to call a special session for medical marijuana once legislative leaders confirm they have a deal.
Here’s the most fascinating item in Pender’s report: “Already, the extended negotiations on medical marijuana have seen one major 11th-hour problem: State Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson recently announced he wants no part in oversight of the program. He’s now threatening to sue if lawmakers pass a law putting him in charge of regulating cultivation and processing of marijuana (despite this having been discussed for months). This has likely delayed the ‘very, very close’ negotiations.”
Gipson’s reservations are understandable. Maybe he thinks any law the Legislature passes is unenforceable, since marijuana sales are a violation of federal law. If accurate, this creates the delicious rarity of a Mississippi Republican official deferring to a federal government that so many of them love to despise.
Or maybe Gipson is among those who find it difficult to grasp the idea of marijuana being legal for any reason, even for medical treatment or pain relief. He is not alone: For decades the conventional wisdom drummed it into everyone’s head that marijuana was a dangerous “gateway” drug to more serious substance abuse.
But in that 2019 referendum, the voters disagreed by a shocking margin. It is to Republican lawmakers’ credit that they read the tea leaves. Given a second chance after the Supreme Court ruling, they got to work on legislation that is bound to be an improvement over the constitutional amendment approved by voters.
Gipson was a legislator before becoming the agriculture commissioner, so surely he knows the rules of the game: The Legislature makes the rules, with the consent of the governor, and state agencies live with it.
If the Legislature decides to involve Gipson’s agency in the supervision or operation of the medical marijuana program, it’s unlikely that a lawsuit will change anything. Though it should be noted that everybody said the Madison mayor’s lawsuit had no chance of undoing the medical marijuana referendum. But look what happened.
More to the point, if Gipson’s resistance really is one of the sticking points that’s delaying a special session, what kind of message will it send if the Legislature caves to him? Imagine the mischief that a stubborn corrections commissioner or a transportation director could create if he were so inclined.
