Mississippians For Compassionate Care want access to medical marijuana for chronically, very ill or otherwise untreatable persons who could benefit from medical marijuana if they were to have access to it. They are the organization behind Medical Marijuana 2020, the campaign to legalize medicinal use in Mississippi.
Mississippi was once considered an unlikely state to go green at the ballot box, but as medical and recreational laws spread across the country and public opinion continues to grow more and more positive toward pot, there’s getting to be no really unlikely states. Oklahoma just enacted a new law, Utah is working up to it, Texas has one of the strongest NORML chapters on the map and the times they are a’changin’.
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The proposed ballot measure needs to get more than 100,000 valid voter signatures by September 2019 to qualify for the November 2020 ballot. If it makes it and is then voted in by the people of Mississippi, the law would change to allow for physicians to certify medical cannabis for debilitating conditions and then patients would be able to obtain the marijuana at State Department of Health licensed and regulated treatment centers.
Qualifying conditions for Mississippi medical cannabis would include: “cancer, epilepsy and other seizures, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, multiple sclerosis, post-traumatic stress disorder, HIV, AIDS, chronic pain, ALS, glaucoma, Crohn’s disease, sickle-cell anemia, autism with aggressive or self-injurious behavior, spinal cord injuries and similar diseases,” according to the campaign website.
The website for Medical Marijuana 2020 also focuses on cannabis being a safe alternative to opiates and as an important line of treatment for veterans, especially those who are currently using multiple prescriptions to combat PTSD, chronic pain and/or depression. Veterans account for around 20 percent of suicides in the U.S. and medical marijuana has proven to be a lifesaver for many in that respect.
Residents of Mississippi are being called upon by Medical Marijuana 2020’s site to help gather signatures on petitions to meet the 2019 deadline. Feet on the ground and grassroots measures are what got us to the point we’re at in the world of cannabis legality and Mississippi seems, at least on the surface, to have a good shot at choosing medical marijuana in 2020.
