TUPELO, Miss. (WTVA) – On Friday, the Mississippi Supreme Court overturned a Medical Marijuana initiative that voters approved last fall.
Now, local CBD stores that planned on selling medical marijuana will have to reevaluate their plans.
“Reading up on it, it kind of makes sense why they had to overturn it,” Morgan Bickford said. “But it’s still an unfair thing to do to people that voted on it.”
Friday, six justices ruled that the Medical Marijuana initiative is void because the state’s initiative process is outdated. Which means that a ballot initiative process cannot work in Mississippi because the state has fewer than five representatives in congress, but Morgan Bickford of 1810 Vapors believes that should be an easy fix.
“You know if we don’t have enough people in the senate, let’s see if we can get more people in the senate,” Bickford said. “Let’s educate the masses more on it.”
1810 Vapors isn’t the only CBD store that had to sit down and think about what this means for its business.
“We anticipated that this was going to be a long road,” said Kelly Riley.
REV of Tupelo also sells CBD products. They initially planned on being able to sell medical marijuana but after hearing the announcement, they are hoping this is only a small holdup.
“We are going to continue focusing on what 7/10 Mississippians were looking forward to with the medical marijuana bill,” Riley said. “As you know we already have a dispensary set up. We have a ton of premium flower, a ton of CBD products and a ton of alternatives so basically, we are going to spend this time focusing on our end, making sure we are doing everything compliant and bringing Mississippi a transparent program.”
In November, Mississippi voters approved Initiative 65, which required the State Health Department to establish a medical marijuana program by the middle of this year.
Now, CBD store employees are focused on what they can do to contribute to the legal aspect of it.
“I think the next step is to educate people more on it and see if we can contribute to the legal aspect of it as well,” Bickford said.
