The Missouri House flat out rejected a bill that sought to legalize medical marijuana use in the state. The 68-87 vote effective torpedoed the Bill, and the lawmakers rolled it back to allow only cancer patients access to medical marijuana.
According to the pro-legalization National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana laws, only Florida has a myopic law permitting the use of medical marijuana across the 23 states that allow its use. A majority of proponents for medical use of cannabis states that they could not support such a narrow application of the law. Opponents, on the other hand, said that even permissive adaptation of marijuana would lead to increased use among teenagers, and only result in looser rules for controlling the drug in future.
The lawmakers adopted a contrasting view, however. They theorized that inaction on their part would only serve to embolden activists seeking to get more sprawling medical marijuana use in future. They feared activists would push for more comprehensive laws in the ballot, given the chance. Hence, the House settled for a myopic application when legalizing marijuana use for medical purposes in the state.
Therefore, marijuana use in Missouri is still a criminal offense. Here are a few facts you need to know:
- Possession of less than 35 grams of marijuana in Missouri is considered a misdemeanor and you can get one year in the slammer.
- Possession of between 30 grams to 30 kilos gets you one year behind bars for criminal possession of marijuana.
- If they get you with cannabis weighing more than 35 kilos but less than 100 kilos, gets you a sentence of between 5 years and 15 years. That’s hard time.
- If they get you with more than 100 kilos, the judge can send you away for life. But if he’s feeling lenient you may get away with at least ten years.
On the other hand, selling marijuana in the state especially if you are within 2000 feet of a school or a public building gets you a life sentence. That means the state doesn’t issue licenses to medical marijuana sellers, because trafficking 5 grams of cannabis gets you seven years, no parole.
What’s even more damning, possession of paraphernalia associated with weed, such as a bong gets you a whole year in the cooler. The legislation was approved in 2014, effectively rewriting previous legislations that reduced penalties for possession of cannabis or related paraphernalia.
It seems that Missouri needs to relax its marijuana laws, given that the Feds have commissioned a study on the medical benefits of marijuana.