Mississippi Bills To Expand Medical Marijuana Access Head To Governor’s Desk

Mississippi lawmakers have sent a pair of bills to expand medical marijuana
access to the governor’s desk.

One of the proposals, known as the “Right to Try Medical Cannabis Act,”
would create a pathway for patients who don’t have one of the state’s
specific delineated qualifying conditions to become eligible for legal
marijuana access.

Under HB 1152, from Rep. Lee Yancey (R), doctors could submit petitions to
the state Department of Health on behalf of their patients who have
chronic, progressive, severely disabling or terminal illnesses. The state
health officer would then be able to approve or deny those requests.

Gov. Tate Reeves (R) now has until Thursday to act on the bill, as well as
separate legislation to expand the kinds of products that are legally
available and to ease some rules for patients and caregivers.

That measure, HB 895, also sponsored by Yancey, would remove a restriction
under current law that limits medical cannabis tinctures, oils and
concentrates to a potency of 60 percent THC.

The bill would also remove a mandate that patients have six-month follow-up
visit with their recommending physicians and would additionally extend
medical cannabis caregiver registrations to two years from the current one
year.

Both medical cannabis bills first passed the House of Representatives last
month and then were amended in the Senate, with the originating chamber
then agreeing to those changes last week.

HB 895 as originally introduced would have also extended medical cannabis
patient card validity from one year to two years, but the Senate removed
that provision.

Reeves can sign the bills into law, veto them or allow them to take effect
without his signature.


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The House also passed separate legislation this session to allow terminally
ill patients to access medical marijuana in hospitals, nursing facilities
and hospice centers, but it stalled in the Senate.

Lawmakers this session sent Reeves a bill to support research in hopes of
gaining federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for the psychedelic
ibogaine as a novel treatment option.

The post Mississippi Bills To Expand Medical Marijuana Access Head To
Governor’s Desk appeared first on Marijuana Moment.