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Supporters aim to put marijuana on 2016 ballot

By REGINA ZILBERMINTS

[e-mail] Twitter: RZilbermintsJanuary 17, 2015


TIM ISBELL/SUN HERALDPeople wanting the legalization of marijuana in Mississippi can sign a petition to get it on the ballot in 2016. TIM ISBELL — SUN HERALD |Buy Photo


Supporters of marijuana legalization in Mississippi are making two broad arguments in hopes at least one of them will win over voters. One is about social justice. The other -- and the one many volunteers along the Coast are focusing on -- is money.

More than 800 volunteers, and counting, have fanned out across Mississippi armed with petitions and passion. If they can get more than 107,000 signatures -- or more than 21,000 from each of Mississippi's five districts -- marijuana legalization will be on the 2016 ballot. If voters decide in favor of the referendum, Mississippi could go further in legalizing marijuana than any state to date.

"A lot of people are motivated because bad things have happened to their families because of cannabis laws," said Kelly Jacobs, a longtime state Democratic operative who is sponsoring the initiative. "Or they want better things to happen with cannabis.

"Marijuana, for an enormous amount of Mississippians, is about wanting a choice."

Social change faces considerable headwind in the state, though, where voters backed a ban on same-sex marriage, for example, and conservatives rule a Legislature that favors restrictive abortion laws and only grudgingly allowed gambling.

Ballot Initiative 48 proposes a constitutional amendment with two parts. The measure legalizes the production, sale and use of recreational and medicinal marijuana and industrial hemp. It also requires the governor to pardon anyone with a nonviolent marijuana-related conviction.

Because the measure is a constitutional amendment, the onus would be on the state Legislature to amend Mississippi's drug laws to

fall within its scope.

It would require the state to tax recreational marijuana at 7 percent with the proceeds going to public schools until at least 2020. The state would also set up a licensing system and collect fees. Recreational marijuana would be legal for those at least 21 years old, and cannabis-related crimes would be punished similarly to alcohol-related offenses.

The initiative would also require the health department to set up a system of dispensaries for medicinal marijuana and would allow industrial hemp growth and production.

On Tuesday, a group of supporters gathered at Government Street Grocery, an Ocean Springs bar, to begin collecting names.

Justin Lawson, who organized the gathering, wanted to talk hemp.

Spewing statistics on turnover time and hemp imports, he argued the plant could bring tens of millions of dollars to Mississippi's economy.

According to the Agricultural Marketing Resource Center, the United States imported about $11.5 million in hemp in 2011. Canada, where production is legal, saw gross revenue from hemp-seed production between $30.75 million and $34 million.

Lawson argued Mississippi, with its available farmland, hospitable climate and economic need, could benefit even more from production. The nascent industry would bring jobs to the state and give farmers another way to make money, he said.

"It's a matter of either waiting or being one of the forerunners," he said. "This will open up so many more doors."

James Coleman also made the economic argument. In addition to hemp production, he pointed to the money the state would save on policing and incarceration costs for drug offenses, the tourism dollars it could draw and the tax money it would collect.

Jacobs' petition estimates Mississippi would bring in $17 million in sales tax during the first seven months of sales.

"It needs to be done," Coleman said. "Mississippi is always the last to do something. Here we could be first. It would be great for the economy."

Colorado, which imposed a 2.9 percent tax on medicinal marijuana, a 10 percent tax on recreational marijuana and a 15 percent excise tax, collected more than $44 million in the first 11 months of marijuana legalization there, according to the state's Department of Revenue.

Uphill battle?

Activists are hopeful -- some even optimistic -- but many understand they are fighting an uphill battle. Only two states -- Colorado and Washington -- have legalized recreational marijuana. The District of Columbia and 23 states allow medical marijuana but none of those is in the South.

On the other hand, Mississippi is one of 11 states that allows medical marijuana under very limited circumstances to treat epileptic conditions. In is also one of 18 states that has decriminalized marijuana possession to a certain extent. Minor possession charges are treated more or less like traffic tickets.

But cultivating or selling marijuana is still a serious crime in Mississippi. And the decriminalization law did nothing for those already convicted of marijuana possession.

That, along with the medicinal aspect, is what Jacobs is focusing on.

For the 55-year-old, who said she's never smoked marijuana and is "more interested in chocolate than drugs," marijuana legalization is about social justice.

Her press releases are filled with testimonials from Mississippians who say they want marijuana to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, depression or pain. She also argued against the incarceration of people for low-level offenses.

In an American Civil Liberties Union report prepared before the state decriminalized the drug, the organization found in 2010 Mississippi had the 10th highest arrest rate for marijuana possession in the country, or 25 percent higher than the national rate.

The same report estimated Mississippi spent more than $16.7 million on marijuana enforcement in 2010.

"Here we are in a poor state that refuses to fully fund education, but they will incarcerate anybody over a plant that does not hurt anybody," she said. "It's ridiculous we've outlawed this. We cannot leave people in jail, separated from their families."

She and other volunteers will continue circulating petitions and helping people register to vote. She hopes to have the required signatures by July.


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