One of the architects of the proposed medical marijuana bill says he lost 25 pounds last year undergoing throat cancer treatment. To avoid being on a feeding tube, House Republican Lee Yancey of Brandon, says he drank 1,000 calorie shakes. He later learned medical marijuana could have helped him regain his appetite.
“Medical Marijuana makes a person who has something called Cachexia, the wasting away that happens with people that are on chemotherapy or AIDS patients. You see them just skin and bones, for these folks it gives them an appetite and helps them to gain weight,” Yancey said.
Fortunately Yancey says he’s cancer free. But if he had known then what he knows now, Yancey says he would have been willing to use some type of medical marijuana. He’s adamant many Mississippians are facing debilitating conditions who would benefit from medical marijuana. Yancey says they’ve made some changes to the bill Governor Tate Reeves requested. But they aren’t going to budge on his request that doctors be allowed to prescribe 3.5 grams and other medical providers be limited to 2.8. Reeves talked about the gram weight on SuperTalk radio station this week.
“You look at the amount of marijuana that they allow each individual to get, every individual that gets a marijuana card can smoke up to 11 joints per day,” Reeves said.
Yancey disputes that saying 3.5 grams is the industry standard and it will make 3 and half pre-rolled joints the size of tobacco cigarettes. He doesn't think Reeves was ever going to call a special session. Angie Calhoun with the Mississippi Cannabis Patient Alliance, is disheartened because she says Reeves told Mississippians he would call one, if legislators in both chambers could reach an agreement on a bill. She says the patients she's talking to are feeling hopeless.
“To me it’s more about him wanting to have control or just finding a way to postpone this more and more,” Calhoun said.
Calhoun adds some patients are talking about leaving the state. She says Mississippi is already losing population and to have patients leaving because they cannot get a natural treatment that they need here is heartbreaking. Calhoun wants the governor to hear some of the stories she hearing as she travels the state to meet with families who have loved ones with debilitating illnesses.
Representative Lee Yancey says the focus should be on the patients and the needless pain and suffering they're faced with. This would be one more tool, another option he says for healthcare providers to help people who need relief and palliative care. Yancey says he is frustrated but prepared to wait until January for the regular session.
