Mississippi House and Senate lawmakers have reached an agreement to send a bill to legalize medical marijuana to the governor’s desk this week. The proposal will go to a bicameral conference committee that will finalize details of the legislation on Tuesday, with votes in both chambers for final passage expected on Wednesday. Sen. Kevin Blackwell (R) and Rep. Lee Yancey (R) discussed the plan at a press conference on Tuesday. There was an opportunity for a concurrence vote in the Senate—where the bill originated and advanced to the House this month and was then amended—but following pushback from the Mississippi Municipal League (MML) over a House change related to zoning rules for cannabis businesses, the Senate is now expected to vote against concurrence and instead go to conference. This comes more than 14 months after voters in Mississippi passed an initiative to legalize medical cannabis—a law the state Supreme Court later overturned. And the bill that’s being tweaked again is the result of months of negotiations and last-minute changes to a nearly 450-page bill. “This has been a long journey, and it’s nice to be in a place where everyone is in agreement,” Yancey said on Tuesday.
Kyle Jaeger, Marijuana Moment, 01/25/2022 13:45:00