In a recent interview, Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves (R) spoke about the potential for calling lawmakers back to Congress for a special session. Activists and lawmakers have been calling for a special session since the state’s Supreme Court overturned IM 65. This ballot initiative received 74 percent voter approval. However, after a successful lawsuit from the Mayor of Madison, Mississippi, the measure was overturned because of a mathematical impossibility when collecting signatures.
Back in 1992, an amendment was approved by both chambers and voters to require that initiative process measures needed to have equal amounts of signatures from all five congressional districts in the state. However, Mississippi lost one of their districts in 2000 after the census. The law didn’t update and still said signatures cannot come from more than ⅕, or 20 percent, of each district. With only four districts, equal share automatically makes the percentage ¼, or 25 percent. While this does technically violate the signature requirement, the amendment had never been contested until now.
Court Ruling
When the Supreme Court ruled that IM 65 was invalid, activists cried out to lawmakers to make changes. But the legislative session came to an end. There simply wasn’t enough time to craft a similar bill to IM 65 and send it through the appropriate legislative process. Now with the session over, only the governor can call lawmakers back for a special session to discuss certain topics.
Governor Reeves has received several pushes to call for a special session to discuss and create a medical cannabis program, especially from the Secretary of State Michael Watson. In a radio interview, Watson said:
“You know, I believe that we should go into a special session for numerous reasons. Number one: so many folks came out of medical marijuana. It clearly passed with a strong majority of Mississippians voting. Matter of fact, just this past week, a very close family friend of mine, whose mother is now battling stage four cancer, couldn’t eat, was in pain and they were able to get her some. I’m not sure if it was gummies or brownies…but she was able to ingest that and then, you know, was able to eat and get her appetite back. So Mississippians voted for that, and I think you can help so many people.
“So I would like to see the Legislature come in and handle that as quickly as possible while they’re there. Let’s fix this provision so we can go up for a vote…I think that they would both stand a challenge, but why waste that time? Why put that risk out there when you could go ahead and address those? There’s a statute and do it in a special session. So you’ve got four things that you could fix pretty quickly in my mind. And you get some relief, the Mississippians who clearly voted strongly for it.”
Governor Response
After saying he supports the will of the people, Governor Reeves spoke with local news reporters about calling for a special session. The governor is asking lawmakers to discuss medical cannabis provisions outside of session. They can create a basic idea of what legislature they want to before arriving in a special session.
“I can call them into a special session. And for $30,000 a day, they can sit around and talk and negotiate and determine what a medical marijuana plan can look like,” Governor Reeves said. “Or I can not call them in yet. And for $0 a day, they can talk and negotiate and develop a plan.”
“Next week is not likely, but clearly, it should be sooner rather than later,” Governor Reeves continued when discussing cannabis reform and restructuring the signature collecting process. Currently, the governor wants lawmakers to only discuss creating a medical cannabis program. But lawmakers may also try to tackle the signature process as well if there is time.
If Governor Reeves calls for a special session, we will update you with the latest.
Make sure to check back for more cannabis and hemp related news.