Rep. Donnie Scoggin (R-Ellisville) talked about the ins and outs of medical marijuana, how it will affect Jones County and who is and isn’t eligible to use it.
After Gov. Tate Reeves signed the Mississippi Medical Marijuana Act into Law in March, municipalities and counties had 90 days to choose to opt in or out of all or part of the act, including growing, cultivation and dispensaries within their limits.
There are a lot of things that the state does not know about medical marijuana, said Scoggin, a nurse practitioner.
“We aren’t trying to invent the wheel,” Scoggin told a group at the Laurel Country Club for a recent breakfast gathering with local representatives called Eggs and Issues. “A lot of other states have passed medical marijuana, and so we are trying to learn from their mistakes and see what they did good and do those things.”
But not everyone will be able to have access to medical marijuana, Scoggin said.
“One of the things I tell people is that you are not going to be able to go to your local family provider and get a prescription for medical marijuana. It’s still federally illegal,” he said. “Legally, physicians cannot prescribe it. Pharmacies cannot dispense it.”
Because of that, a person would go to their provider to get verification from that provider that says he or she has a qualified disease or diagnosis for medical marijuana. From there, verification will go through the Mississippi State Department of Health, which will check to see if the prescription is legitimate, conduct a background check to make sure the patient does not have a felony history and no substance-use disorder history, Scoggin said.
“Once you do that, they will issue a card and that will be presented to a dispensary,” Scoggin said.
At the dispensary, they will work with the patient to see which form of medical marijuana will be best for the patient’s needs. Nothing will happen within the next year as cultivators have to begin growing it, and they need seeds, which are still federally illegal, Scoggin said.
“So we are just going to fly them over and put them in a parachute or something, I don’t know,” Scoggin said jokingly. “We’ve got to get the seeds in the state first.”
The MSDH will make sure that the THC in the medical marijuana is within a certain range and that the plants are grown indoors in a controlled, secure environment so that there is no cross contamination with pollination, Scoggin said.
“The same way with chicken houses, if the department of health comes in and finds that your THC is out of whack, either too high or too low, that whole (crop) has to be destroyed,” Scoggin said. “There’s a lot of rules and regulations.”
Jones County right now has opted out for dispensaries and processing, but opted in for cultivation. Hopefully, Jones County will have some good income from this, Scoggin said.
“The city of Laurel and the city of Ellisville have opted in also,” Scoggin said. “Dispensaries cannot be within 1,000 feet of a church or school, and there are very few places in Ellisville where a dispensary can go because there are too many churches and too many schools.”
Sen. Juan Barnett (D-Heidelberg) and Rep. Robin Robinson (R-Laurel) did not talk about medical marijuana during the forum.
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