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Medical Marijuana – 65 or 65A?
On your ballot next Tuesday, you will have a question on there asking if you support or don’t support medical marijuana. Personally, I am ok with marijuana being used for cancer patients, patients with Parkinson disease, and other diseases that our medical doctors believe could benefit in pain relief for certain things. But it must be up to our medical professionals and it must come with doing it right. My wife’s mother fought a long hard battle with cancer, and if the doctor believed this would help her with pain and she was ok with trying it, then I would be all for it. My wife’s father fought a long crippling battle with Parkinson disease and if the doctors believed this would have given him relief and he was good with it, then I would have been too. It was difficult for Melissa and my family to watch both of them go through these diseases that eventually took their life and if doctors thought this would help either then no doubt we would have been ok with it. 65A would allow this to happen. I don’t think 65A is perfect but it can be fixed and made better for all by the legislature of this state. 65 on the other hand if passed will be put straight into our state constitution. Do we really want something like this added straight to our state constitution? This would mean no changes can be made at all and we need to be very careful about adding something to our state constitution that overrides and supersedes state and local law. Did you know our cities would have no say where a pot shop can be opened if 65 passes? Zoning would not matter. These “Treatment Centers” as they would be called could pop up anywhere. Also, the sale of marijuana under 65 will charge a “fee” or “charge” (they don’t call it a tax) and that money will go into a special fund specifically for the benefit of the marijuana business. Our cities, our counties, and local governments would receive no benefit from it and would have no say in where these pot shops can go in their communities. Most doctors, most pharmacist, and most law enforcement are adamantly against the passage of 65. Again, I have no real problem with it as long as it is done correctly! So, you will be asked to vote yes or no in favor of medical marijuana in our state. I will vote “Yes” and then I will vote for 65A on the next question which is which one do you prefer, 65 or 65A. Now if you vote “No” on the first question, please consider going down to the next question and still voting for 65A. You can still do that and SHOULD do that in case the “yes” votes pass on the first question. Let’s do this right. Again, I don’t think 65A is perfect but it is way better than 65 and it gives the legislature the opportunity to work on it and make it better for our people in our state, and especially the ones who truly could possibly benefit from this.
By: Chris Caughman
MageeNews.com is an online news source covering Simpson and surrounding counties as well as the State of Mississippi.
I agree that65 is not a perfect proposition but 65A is not even worth the time for consideration. If you want to complain about 65 then complain to the state legislature! They have ignored the concept of medical marijuana for years. Bills that were introduced were sent to committee to die and die they did. The legislature only came up with 65A AFTER all the work for65 was complete and only did it to confuse most of the voters! What ever happens with this vote you can lay the blame at the feet of ALL of our elected officials!!
Why did our lawmakers make the use for medical marijuana only for terminally ill patients in 65A. This leaves out Epilepsy patients who may need that drug to help control seizures , among with many other people who live with diseases like MS. I believe our lawmakers really screwed this up if they really wanted to help our citizens who could really benefit from medical marijuana. I will have to vote for 65.