Legal marijuana crops — when and if they come to pass — are going to be a lot different from the one my nephew and I came across about 40 years ago.
It was less than a mile from my late mother-in-law’s house in eastern Claiborne County.
Darrell Sorrels, her grandson, and I were quail hunting when we discovered the patch of growing weeds about the size of a typical vegetable garden.
A water hose, powered by a portable gasoline pump, ran from a small stream to irrigate the crop. The operation was in a clearing surrounded by pine and hardwood trees, so it was secluded unless one walked upon it.
I recall that we decided not to tell his grandmother about the marijuana, but Darrell remembers that at some point she was told and instructed us not to tell anybody. “They’d burn me out,” she feared.
Actually, I did tell a law enforcement officer about it, but I never heard what came of the patch. We found no quail in the area and stayed away from it after the initial discovery.
I don’t know much about marijuana, having come of age in a generation in which its use in Mississippi was rare. Our drugs of choice were legal cigarettes — samples of which were given away by the tobacco companies on college campuses when I was a student — and illegal alcohol.
But from my observation, cannabis, from which marijuana is derived, must be pretty easy to grow. I’ve heard and read about people being arrested for growing it in pots in and around their homes.
Also, judging from the patch I saw, it’s not that expensive to produce unless you get caught doing it.
But that won’t be the case if the proposed legislation on legalizing medical marijuana in Mississippi becomes law.
To legally grow cannabis, according to the proposed legislation, will cost an initial license application fee ranging from $5,000 to $40,000 and an annual licensing fee of between $15,000 and $100,000, depending on the size of the cultivating facility.
It will have to be grown under a canopy no greater than 100,000 square feet instead of in an open field.
The cost of getting into cannabis farming, including the mandatory indoor facilities, is raising alarms among Black farmers and some members of the Legislative Black Caucus.
It does appear that the costs and regulations will be to the advantage of large operators, including corporations, with capital to invest.
So, what else is new?
Also raising questions are Mississippi Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce Andy Gipson who says he wants no part of managing parts of the program allocated to his agency under the proposed legislation.
Likewise, State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs says he has “grave concerns” over the possible lack of funding for the Department of Health’s role in managing medical marijuana.
The proposal calls for the program to be regulated by the Department of Health, the Department of Agriculture and Commerce and the Department of Revenue.
Under Initiative 65, which was voided by the courts, Mississippi’s medical marijuana program would have been placed entirely under the Health Department and self-funded through fees on all parties involved in producing and selling the product, as well as patients.
The legislative proposal contains no such mechanism, and instead places all sales and excise tax revenue from the program in the state general fund.
Probably there’ll be some changes in the proposed legislation to at least pay the agencies for some initial costs.
But as Gipson, a former lawmaker himself, says “the Legislature is notorious for passing new programs, massive government bureaucracies, and never funding (the) enforcement of it.”
At this writing, Gov. Tate Reeves had not called a special session on medical marijuana although he had earlier indicated he would when legislative leaders agreed on a plan.
It’s likely the legislation recently proposed will get some changes when and if Reeves calls the session.
Whatever happens, though, growing and regulating legal marijuana will be more sophisticated than producing the illegal kind.
