Petition to legalize weed wants your signature

Go, go, go sign the petition is the message a group wanting to make weed legal in Mississippi is telling voters after everything has been cleared for the group to begin collecting signatures to try to have an initiative placed on the November 2016 ballot.

Mississippi for Cannabis has received the ballot initiative petition from the Secretary of State's office, meaning the group can now begin collecting signatures.

Kelly Jacobs, sponsor of the initiative ballot effort, said the group has until Oct. 2, 2015, to collect signatures from 21,233 registered voters from five different districts. That means the group has to collect at least 106,165 signatures from registered voters to get the measure on the November 2016 ballot.

"If we lack sufficient signatures to hand in by Oct. 2, 2015, then we can still try to get onto the 2017 ballot by gathering sufficient signatures by our one year deadline of December 2015," Jacobs said.

A petition was filed in late September with the secretary of state's satellite office in Hernando, said Jacobs, a longtime Democratic Party official from Hernando. It was the initial step in the ballot process.

If the ballot initiative get the necessary signatures and is approved by voters in referendum, it would make it legal for adults to possess cannabis in unlimited quantities, to use as they wish, just like alcohol or cigarettes. However, it would have to be kept from minors.

"We want to legalize marijuana and decriminalize it," Jacobs said. "It's an adult discussion we should be having."

Former Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics Director Marshall Fisher, who is now the commissioner of Department of Corrections, said he will vote no if the initiative is placed on the ballot. He said it will lead to drug addiction.

According to the information submitted for the ballot initiative, the estimated gross revenue from 7 percent sales tax on marijuana would be $17 million for the first seven months of sales.

Contact Jimmie E. Gates at jgates@jackson.gannett.com or (601) 961-7212. Follow @jgatesnews on Twitter.