When the Mississippi Supreme Court stirred up a hornet’s nest by scrapping both medical marijuana and the initiative process through which it was legalized, they handed the Legislature two different problems.
One is easy to solve, but there is no rush to do it immediately.
The other is tougher, but there is reason to do it quickly.
We’ll take them one at a time.
Why the Legislature, when it created the initiative process in the 1990s, didn’t envision the chance that Mississippi would lose a congressional district one day, who knows? But that lack of foresight, according to the Supreme Court’s majority, should have ended the initiative process 20 years ago when the state went from five congressional districts to four, creating a mathematical impossibility for meeting the signature requirements.
Correcting this is simple. Instead of specifying the exact number of districts, the constitutional amendment could just say that the required number of signatures must be evenly divided between the congressional districts in place at the time the initiative is filed with the Secretary of State’s Office. That would fix the current problem and avoid its recurrence should Mississippi lose or gain a congressional seat in the future.
This correction, though, does not require a special session. Since it would still have to be approved by the voters in the next general election, which doesn’t come until November 2022, lawmakers could take care of this detail when they meet in January during their next regular session.
Medical marijuana is a different situation.
The voters overwhelmingly said they wanted Mississippi this year to join with the majority of states that have legalized marijuana. A nearly 75% approval for an initiative, especially one that faced significant organized opposition, is unprecedented. Lawmakers appear to understand that ignoring the clear will of the majority could be politically perilous to them. Many have called on Gov. Tate Reeves to call for a special session of the Legislature so it can enact a medical marijuana law.
Crafting that law, though, is not going to be so easy. The initiative that voters approved provides a framework but has flaws. The taxation is low, and the proceeds are incorrectly distributed. Local governments have no say in where marijuana dispensaries are located. The list of qualifying medical conditions is too broad. There are concerns over whether the Department of Health is the best agency to handle regulation of an industry that includes the cultivation, processing and distribution of a drug.
These details will require some study and discussion to get them right — and that takes time. Although a special session may be in order, those who have said a general agreement on the legislation needs to be hammered out in advance of summoning lawmakers to Jackson have the correct idea. Otherwise, this could drag out for days, if not weeks, with taxpayers footing the bill while most lawmakers sit on their hands waiting on a handful of negotiators to finish their work.
The major proponents of the medical marijuana initiative might not like their handiwork being changed, but the end result could be better than what voters approved.
One of the biggest benefits is the enabling language would be in state statute, which is an easier and more practical vehicle than the constitution for regulating a medicine. If the law requires tweaking because some unforeseen problems occur, lawmakers can do so without having to ask voters to approve the changes.
In that regard, despite the criticism the Supreme Court is taking, it may have done the state a favor.
