- Christopher Smith, Editor-in-Chief
Mississippi Medicine Thwarted Again
I’ve never even been to Mississippi, but reading about it, one might get the feeling that it’s the armpit of America.
According to US News and World Report, Mississippi ranks:
#50 in Healthcare
#50 in Employment
#49 in Economy
#48 in Infrastructure
#48 in Internet Access…
And under these conditions - #50 in Healthcare especially - more than 70% of the citizens of Mississippi voted in 2020 to legalize medicinal cannabis, but it was rescinded on a technicality. And the Governor has been stonewalling for various stupid reasons ever since.
Yesterday, he was at it again, and stupid is as stupid does:
THE SCOOP
First of all, the news conference looked like an announcement of war. Five white guys on stage, and in addition to the Governor, there were 3 of police officers in full dress with the trooper hats pulled low so their face is in shadow. Nothing says “Law and Order” like state troopers, even if your state is 33rd out of 50 for Crime and Corrections.
The Governor – Tate Reeves - is yet another unenlightened Republican trying to make cannabis policy with a calculator rather than common sense, or even sound advice. Here’s Reeves trying to make sense:
In the State of Oklahoma, 10% of its people have medical marijuana cards. We’re kinda like Oklahoma in some ways, so that would mean 10% of Mississippians would have medical cards.
That means 300,000 medical cards, he says, as if that’s a bad thing in a state that’s #50 out of 50 in Healthcare – that means the lowest score in the country in Access, Quality, and Public Health, of which this is a prime example.
He goes on to say that a medical card gives access to 3 ½ grams of the product (per day). And here’s where he says, "The proponents of this particular bill love to talk about grams and all these other things that nobody fully understands…" Which is what you say when your state is #43 out of 50 in Education.
He goes on to say "… you don’t even have to be that good, it’s a pretty simple Google search, 3 ½ grams would allow, for all 300,000 Mississippians with a marijuana card, up to 11 joints per day.” He then multiplies 300,000 times 11 and gets 3.3 million joints per day, or 1.2 Billion joints per year “floating around Mississippi."
And that, he says, is "NOT medical marijuana, that's recreational."
No mention if the good Governor is regulating the amount of pain medication is available to Mississippians, or for that matter, the number of bottles of alcohol...
THE DEEP DIVE
Then he claims there will be side effects:
Not only to those individuals (such as they will feel better because they have cannabis now)
But it will be harder to fill jobs (because you know that nobody that’s using the reefer can do no work!
Crime and other things that go along with it are likely to go up. (which is what you say when Reefer Madness rules your life AND you don’t understand how dispensaries work).
THE LOOP BACK
It should be noted that I reported on this Good ole boy Governor on November 10th, when he was griping that 3.5 grams is too much, it should be 2.8 grams. That means he’s hung up medicine for 300,000 people for less than the weight of a dollar bill.
And that’s one way you get your state to be #50 out of 50 in Healthcare.