St. Louis, MO – As a direct result of Missouri NORML’s Lobby Day on February 26, 2020, new bills protecting the rights of Missouri medical marijuana patients have been filed in the Missouri House of Representatives!
One bill will protect the rights of medical marijuana patients as employees from discriminatory actions by their employers based only on a positive drug test for marijuana.
The other will protect the rights of medical marijuana patients as parents from arbitrary actions by the state of Missouri and its courts based on medical marijuana patient status.
Both bills were filed by Rep. Wiley Price of St. Louis. The Employee Protection Act is designated HB 2764. The bill to protect the rights of Patients as Parents is designated HB 2715.
Both bills are now awaiting assignment to a committee by House Speaker Elijah Haahr. All those who support passage of these bills are urged to contact House Speaker Elijah Haahr at 573-751-2210 or by e-mail at Elijah.Haahr@house.mo.gov.
Missouri NORML is also very concerned about a bill which passed the House this week, HB 1896. Amendments were made to this bill on the House floor which would prevent medical marijuana patients from being qualified and certified to use medical marijuana via video connection to a physician.
Columbia Representative Kip Kendrick said that cutting off telehealth appointments would just make it harder for people in rural areas to get certified. “It’s going to impact a lot of people negatively.”
Missouri NORML Coordinator and Attorney Dan Viets, who chaired the Board of Directors of the Article XIV medical marijuana campaign, said, “This is a blatant attempt by the legislature to defeat the will of 66% of the voters who supported Article XIV in the November, 2018 election. If this measure passes the Senate and is signed by the Governor, it will almost certainly be challenged as unconstitutional.”