Clinton opts-out of the state’s medical marijuana program

CLINTON, Miss. (WLBT) - With about three weeks left until cities have to decide whether to opt in or out of the medical marijuana program, two more cities in the Jackson-metro have opted out - Madison and Clinton.

”This is something that is forever. You can’t opt-out after you’ve opted in,” Mayor Phil Fisher said.

In a 5-2 vote, Clinton became the newest city to opt-out of the Medical marijuana program. Mayor Phil Fisher said the decision wasn’t made lightly.

“We went through a very lengthy process. We didn’t just jump into this. We have two attorneys on our board. And we have our city attorney and I asked the three of them to join me as we went through the bill,” Fisher said.

According to Fisher, the biggest concern for him and some of the aldermen was that the rules and city guidelines aren’t explicitly laid out - and they didn’t want to opt-in to something they didn’t fully understand.

“You need to know what the rules are. What can you or can’t you do? Because we can’t with these business, this business cannot be treated differently than anyone else,” Fisher said.

As for one of the state’s largest medical marijuana plants, CEO of Mockingbird Cannabis, Clint Patterson, says there’s a reason why his future plant is half a mile outside of city limits.

“We didn’t want to be in a city because they can opt-out of the program. By being out of city limits, it protects us a little more,” Patterson stated.

And while counties could still opt-out, most have not. Mayor Fisher explained he isn’t 100% against it. Here’s why he wants to wait.

“Once the rules are put out, and then other cities start doing their ordinances, we see how those ordinances go, after a year, we see the legislature comes back and tweaks anything, got it in place. Then we go through our process again, to bring it back up and say, Okay, now we’re going to vote again,” Fisher said.

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