One of the bills Sen. Chuck Younger is proud to have gotten through the Mississippi Legislature this year is the Hemp Cultivation Act, allowing for the legalization of hemp processing in the state.
The Lowndes County Republican who has represented District 17 in the state Senate since 2014 said it was a “rough bill” to get passed.
“Everybody thinks of marijuana when they think of hemp,” Younger said told Columbus Rotarians Tuesday at Lion Hills Center. “But the CBD oil has turned out to be a big help with children with autism. It’s been a pain reliever for other things too. Of course they have the cream too now that you can rub on if you have a hurt knee or a shoulder.”
Unlike marijuana, Younger said, hemp is 3 percent or less THC, the substance in marijuana that causes a high. He said some would-be entrepreneurs had already approached him about wanting to start a processing plant — one possibly in Monroe County — prompting him to support the bill this year.
It was one of several bills Younger brought up during his speech to Columbus Rotary Club. Younger spent about 40 minutes chatting and answering questions, giving information on everything from a bill allowing military spouses to more quickly receive professional licenses in the state to “probably the biggest controversy we had,” the vote to remove the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag.
Legislators overwhelmingly voted in June to retire the flag, which had long been controversial in Mississippi but had come under national scrutiny this summer amid protests against police brutality and racism.
“A lot of guys are getting beat up over it,” Younger said. “It was the right thing to do. I just wish we’d got it done earlier, instead of this year with all the controversy going on. I’m glad we got it over with.”
Less successful were bills Gov. Tate Reeves vetoed after the Legislature passed them, such as Senate Bill 2123, which would have allowed certain prisoners with nonviolent convictions who had been sentenced as habitual offenders — meaning they have three or more prior convictions — to be eligible for parole after serving part of their sentence.
“I think it’s a good bill,” Younger said in answer to a question from one Rotary member about the state prison system, which came under scrutiny earlier this year when multiple state prisons experienced large scale riots and deaths of prisoners.
Younger pointed out the bill is not a get-out-of-jail free card for prisoners, who would still have to go through the parole process. He said the state’s head of parole supports the bill and that it would apply to prisoners with charges such as drug sales or felony driving under the influence, not violent crimes.
“My goodness, put an ankle bracelet on them, send them home, let them get a job,” Younger said. “Let them work for the county or whatever. … We can’t handle that many prisoners, so I thought it was a good bill. I’ve had a bunch of emails telling us that we need to override (Reeves’ veto). I’m going to look at it closer, but I think it’s a good bill and I’m probably going to vote to override it when we go back.”
The Senate recessed after passing the flag bill due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Younger told The Dispatch he doesn’t know when the Legislature will be back in session, but he said he thinks when it does happen the Legislature will override that and an education appropriations bill that Reeves vetoed.
He also raised the issues of private prisons, which he said he’s against, and the bureaucracy at Mississippi Department of Corrections, such as a policy to have prisoners fingerprinted and processed at a facility in Rankin County, which he said could be done just as easily in the prisoners’ own counties.
“Corrections is a big problem,” he said.
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