An updated version of the Medical Cannabis Act is on its way to the governor

JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – An updated version of the Medical Cannabis Act passed through the Mississippi Legislature and is on its way to the governor’s desk.

House Bill 1158 is full of changes to the Medical Cannabis Act, which was passed last year as lawmakers try to make the state’s medical marijuana program as efficient as possible.

Changes to the program include not requiring doctors to go through extra certification in order to authorize or recommend medical marijuana cards to patients and mandating patients to have ID cards available when purchasing.

Rep. Lee Yancey (R-District 74) said these changes help make the program run as smooth as possible.

“The Board of Medical Licensure began implementing additional requirements for doctors to be able to certify people, so… and that was not in the bill. So, it was not our intention for there to be any additional requirement. So, they have to do those eight hours the first year, and then there’s five hours of continuing education every year after that. We felt like that was sufficient just to keep them apprised of what the new research was showing. As far as what conditions were helped by what particular cannabinoids, we certainly think that we will have to continue making what we call tweaks to the bill every year as we find what works and what doesn’t work,” said Yancey.

The bill was passed through the legislature on Tuesday, March 14, and has been sent to the governor.