Missouri’s legislative session is expanding to cover important topics, but not cannabis
Given that a separate cannabis reform initiative will appear on the November ballot, Missouri’s governor does not intend to expand a special legislative session to further address the issue of marijuana legalization. While the agenda would have been ideal to add the issue and cover it more broadly, the state’s governor does not believe it is necessary to devote more time to the legalization of the plant since much of it can be defined in two months.
A special session focused on tax relief is scheduled for September 14. Although the measure will be placed on the ballot, there is a recently formed campaign opposing the process. In turn, advocates want Governor Mike Parson to give legislators the opportunity to move forward on the issue legislatively before the election takes place. The intent is for there to be a particular focus on the proposal previously introduced by Representative Ron Hicks.
However, a spokesman for the governor’s office made it clear yesterday that the top official’s call for a special session will not have any changes that seek to include cannabis legalization. Not long ago, Parson said that people who vote in favor of the ballot proposal will be “doing more for the corporations behind marijuana and the business side of marijuana than they have ever done for themselves.”
The governor’s decision is actually good news for Legal Missouri 2022, the campaign that worked day and night to put the cannabis reform initiative before voters later this year. Many critics still hoped lawmakers would not wait until November and instead take action on their own and possibly pass an alternative reform bill that would undermine the ballot measure they consider problematic.