An early fight between the legislative leadership and Gov. Tate Reeves could be brewing if he vetoes a medical marijuana bill as he said he would do if it does not meet his specifications.
Many anticipate passing a medical marijuana bill will be one of the first priorities of the Legislature in the 2022 session. Most legislators, including Speaker Philip Gunn and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, had expressed support for the governor calling a special session to take up medical marijuana after the state Supreme Court stunningly struck down the medical marijuana program approved by voters in November 2020.
But the governor, who has the sole authority to call a special session, refused in large part because he said the proposal worked out by House and Senate leaders allowed for too large a quantity of marijuana to be dispensed to individuals.
Reeves blocked the proposal for 2021 by refusing to call a special session. He now says he is likely to try to block the proposal in the 2022 regular session by the power of his pen — through his veto.
“As it is currently written, I don’t think I will be able to do that,” Reeves said referring to signing into law the bill that is expected to be offered during the 2022 session by legislative leaders.
Then Reeves said, “I am hopeful we can find at least 18 senators and 44 or 45 House members willing to vote against (the number needed to uphold his veto) so we can negotiate a true medical marijuana bill in our state.”
In 2021, while the Legislature was out of session, Reeves controlled the process because medical marijuana could not be taken up until he called a special session.
In the 2022 regular session, the governor still maintains a substantial amount of power in determining the fate of medical marijuana. After all, it takes an overwhelming two-thirds majority to override a Mississippi governor’s veto.
Overriding a gubernatorial veto used to be almost as easy for the Mississippi Legislature as taking candy from a baby. But when partisan politics began to emerge in the state, overriding a veto became much more difficult. For decades an overwhelming Democratic legislative majority had no problem overriding a fellow Democrat in the governor’s office.
But in the 2003 legislative session, Democrats in the House decided that overriding their fellow party mate — former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove — as he was preparing for a tough re-election campaign against Republican Haley Barbour was a bad idea. So, they did not, much to the chagrin of the House Democratic Speaker Tim Ford who wanted to conduct business as usual by overriding Musgrove.
Then for 16 years, legislative Republicans made sure that the vetoes of fellow Republican governors — first Barbour and then Phil Bryant — were not overridden.
The Republican legislative supermajority did override Reeves in his first year in office when he vetoed a large portion of the appropriations bill that funded the state’s kindergarten through 12th grade schools.
But overriding his veto of medical marijuana might not be as easy.
Remember there will be some legislators, primarily Republicans, who oppose medical marijuana and will not vote under any circumstances for a bill legalizing it. If there are enough of them combined with those who are loyal to or most likely agree with Reeves on the issue of limiting the amount of marijuana dispensed, it is possible that the overwhelming two-thirds majority needed to override the veto cannot be achieved.
Then, legislators who support medical marijuana will be forced to work with Reeves to try to hammer out an agreement.
Of course, the governor does risk political consequences if the ultimate result of his veto power play is that no medical marijuana bill is passed. Reeves can perhaps rightfully argue that legislators bear as much of the blame as he does. But the truth is he is the governor — by far the most highly visible of the politicians involved in the rift — so he most likely would receive the bulk of the blame.
And the fact that voters overwhelmingly approved the medical marijuana initiative in 2020 does not necessarily mean it will become law now that the Supreme Court struck it down.
In 1992 voters approved an amendment to the state Constitution that removed the ban on a state lottery. Still, Mississippi did not get a lottery.
While the lottery ban was removed from the Constitution, there were not enough votes in the Legislature (only a simple majority was needed) to pass a bill establishing a lottery. That did not happen until the summer of 2018 — 26 years later.
The U.S. Department of Education has approved Mississippi’s plan for spending pandemic-related education funds and released the last third of the money to the state.
The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) fund is intended to help schools run safely throughout the pandemic and increase opportunities for students whose educational experience has been negatively impacted. The fund was first created in March 2020 in the Coronavirus Aid Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, and has been replenished multiple times throughout the pandemic by federal legislation.
Mississippi was allocated $1.6 billion in the latest round of ESSER funds, this time through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). The state received the first $1.08 billion in late March of this year and the remaining $543 million was released to the state yesterday.
The plan includes a full return to in-person learning, encouraging local vaccine drives at schools, increased individual and small-group tutoring, summer enrichment programs, and the state’s telehealth program for mental health counseling.
“Mississippi has prioritized in-person learning because it is the most effective way to keep students engaged, accelerate learning and address their social and emotional learning needs,” said Carey Wright, Mississippi state superintendent of education.
While some of these efforts – like a return to traditional learning and encouragement of vaccine drives – are already in place, others have been delayed.
The telehealth program mentioned in the plan is a collaboration between the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s Center for the Advancement of Youth (CAY) and the Achievement School District and Jefferson County School District. It consists of two parts: a program that aims to equip teachers with the skills to identify and respond to behavioral issues in their students, and a referral to a counselor for students who need more help.
The program was initially set to launch in the fall but has been delayed until Jan. 12, 2022.
Teachers at both school districts told CAY officials their students are struggling with grief and loss, depression and anxiety, community violence and cyberbullying. Experts at UMMC will focus their efforts in those areas.
Adrian Hammitte, the superintendent of Jefferson County School District, said the help is much needed as behavioral issues in both the upper elementary and junior high schools in his district have increased.
“I think we all know over the last two years it has been extremely hard for the students, teachers and community members here,” he said. “And particularly in Jefferson County, if we look at our situation before COVID, it was already challenging.”
The plan also includes improving connectivity and technology access for rural and low-income students.
New programs in Mississippi will pay timber and farmland owners to store carbon as part of a growing market aimed at reducing emissions and slowing climate change.
Landowners can receive what are called “carbon credits” based on how much carbon they sequester, or store, in their trees or soil, rather than releasing it into the atmosphere. The landowner can then sell those credits for money through an exchange, usually to companies looking to offset their own emissions.
The concept has existed for a while, but has picked up recent momentum as companies anticipate more government regulations around emissions.
With an abundance of forest and a large timber industry, Mississippians are growing curious about the new potential for income.
One timber carbon market exchange, a California-based company called NCX, began its first contracts with landowners in the state earlier this year. NCX is working with Mississippi State University to educate interested landowners on how they can earn credits for their trees.
“The whole point is to get you to postpone a harvest that you were willing or ready to do right now, or there was some risk of that possibility,” explained MSU Extension forestry economist Shaun Tanger, who’s leading the public engagement effort.
Photo by MSU Extension Service/Kevin Hudson
Tanger said the interest is taking off in Mississippi, where the timber market is a significant part of the economy relative to other states.
About 63% of the state is covered in forest, which feeds an industry valued at over a billion dollars annually, and which supplies products like lumber, poles and plywood. A 2008 MSU study found that the industry accounted for nearly one in ten jobs in the state.
“There’s an abundance of working forest relative to other parts of the country, and even some other states in the southeast,” Tanger said, adding that only maybe Alabama and Georgia compete with Mississippi’s timber supply and expertise. “We just do a really good job of growing trees here.”
To participate, foresters – usually those with pine trees over at least a few dozen acres – have to defer harvesting for a year, and in exchange receive a credit based on the trees’ value, based on traits such as age and species, which help show the risk of them being harvested. Foresters can then auction those credits to companies looking to offset their own emissions, and usually receive between $5 to $20 per acre.
Despite the low prices, Tanger said long-term the carbon market will induce competition, which is always good for business. That’s especially the case because there’s no shortage of of trees in the state or places to grow them, he explained.
“The competition initially increases demand, and the supply is fixed,” he said. “But supply responds to demand, so longer term the outcome is going to be more trees on the landscape, because the mills are going to need the trees, the carbon exchanges are going to need the trees, and there’s a lot of acres that can be put into trees.”
More demand also leads to better management and thus a healthier forest, Tanger added, which leads to better carbon sequestration and other natural improvements, like to surrounding watersheds.
The other growing carbon market is that for soil, which encourages farmers to adopt conservation practices on their land.
Compared to the timber market, though, the soil carbon market is the “wild, wild West,” said MSU Extension soil specialist Larry Oldham.
“We truly are in the pioneer phase of this,” Oldham said. He explained that there isn’t an exchange aimed at Mississippians like there is for timber, although there are farmers in the state earning carbon credits.
One company coordinating credits is Truterra, part of one of the largest farmer-run cooperatives in the country, Land O’ Lakes. Farmers interested can take a survey on Truterra’s website to see if they’re eligible and learn more about the program.
Sequestering carbon in soil centers on four main practices: keeping the soil covered as much as possible, decreasing tillage, rotating crops, and using cover crops, which protect the soil after the harvest. Those practices not only help retain carbon, but improve soil health in general as well.
In order to receive credits, farmers must document that they’ve adopted those conservation techniques. Mississippi has been relatively slow to incorporate those practices, Oldham explained, which means a lot of farmers in the state could stand to benefit from the carbon market.
A downside, though, is that farmers who were already doing those practices for years wouldn’t qualify because they can’t document a change in their management. Farmers are also skeptical as to whether the payments, which are similar rates to those in the timber market, are worth making changes, Oldham said.
But carbon sequestration in soil has several long-term benefits, Oldham explained: improving soil health will help farms feed a growing population, and the same practices for storing carbon will also limit erosion and decrease the nutrient runoff in the water supply.
Valentin Joanny, a one-man Ole Miss French fan club, emailed this selfie from outside his home in suburban Paris.
NEW ORLEANS — Football fans will converge on New Orleans this weekend for Baylor, Ole Miss and the Sugar Bowl. None will come farther than Valentin Joanny, known to his nearly 1,900 Twitter followers as Ole Miss France.
None will have a more unique story, either.
Joanny has never been to Oxford, Mississippi, never even been to the United States. Yet nobody bleeds Rebel red and blue more than this 28-year-old dog trainer from suburban Paris.
If all goes right for Joanny, he will take a COVID test today, pass it, get on a jet Friday, fly from Paris to New Orleans, check into his rented loft in the Bywater, get some rest and then celebrate the New Year in the Superdome, cheering on his Rebels.
If all goes really right, Matt Corral will throw for nine touchdowns, Ole Miss will win by 30, and Joanny will celebrate with some of the many Twitter friends who made it financially possible for him to make the trip.
I know. That’s a lot to take in, but there’s plenty more. And I know you have questions. So did I.
How does a 28-year-old dog trainer, who lives near Disneyland Paris become such a rabid Ole Miss fan?
“I started watching college football in 2012 because of Johnny Manziel (the former Texas A&M quarterback),” Joanny answered in a recent email. “In 2014, I saw the movie ‘The Blind Side,’ so I started to learn a little more about the University of Tennessee and Ole Miss. The next day, I decided to watch the game against Alabama, and it was like a revelation to me…”
Rick Cleveland
That would be Oct. 4, 2014. Ole Miss defeated undefeated Alabama 23-17. Bo Wallace threw for three touchdowns. The Rebels out-scored Bama 20-3 in the second half. Senquez Golson sealed the deal with a late interception. Bedlam ensued. Goalposts toppled. Oxford turned upside down. Yes, and on the other side of the Atlantic, watching in the wee hours of the next morning, a new Ole Miss fan was born.
Or, as Joanny puts it, “It was like a revelation for me: Dr. Bo, Treadwell, the upset, the uniform, I immediately fell in love with the Rebels.”
Some more background on this one-man Ole Miss French fan club: “I started tennis at a very young age at three years old, I was pretty good at this sport,” Joanny writes. “I played handball, rugby, football, I have always enjoyed playing and watching sport.”
Joanny continues, “American sport is generally broadcast here in the evening until the early hours of the morning. When you’re young it’s a little harder to be able to follow the NBA, the NFL or college football. I must have started following the NBA and NFL at the age of 16 or 17 and college football a year or two later…”
Then came the Alabama-Ole Miss game and the revelation.
“Now I have a twitter page on Ole Miss. I see all the matches. I have a podcast with friends where we talk about college football to promote it in France. You can say sport is my passion.”
I would say.
Joanny tweets, sometimes in English and often in French, about what he sees. His Twitter page got a big boost three months ago when Ole Miss pummeled Tulane 61-21 and Corral accounted for seven touchdowns.
“C’EST INDECENT!” Joanny tweeted to describe Corral’s record-setting performance, meaning what Corral did to Tulane was indecent. (It really was).
The tweet that made Valentin Joanny more famous.
Writer, editor and college football super-tweeter Alex McDaniel – @AlexMcDaniel to Twitter users – saw Joanny’s tweet, loved it and re-tweeted it to her nearly 27,000 followers. Joanny’s Twitter following soared from about 400 into four figures.
As Ole Miss continued winning football games – and Joanny continued tweeting – it became apparent the Rebels were headed for a major bowl. Someone suggested a “GoFundMe” page to bring Joanny across the Atlantic to attend. It happened. The goal was 2,200 Euros. It has raised, as I write, 2,875 Euros (about $3,250). Joanny says that’s more than enough. “Thanks to Rebel Nation,” he says.
All that’s left is to pass the COVID test. (The omicron variant is raging in France, just as here.)
Yes, Joanny says, he hopes to meet many of the Ole Miss fans here. No, he says, he can’t have a drink with all who have invited him, or he wouldn’t make the kickoff.
Yes, he says, he does have a message – more than the perfunctory “Hotty Toddy” – for those who contributed.
Writes Joanny, “Thank you everyone, nothing would have been possible without you and your support. I will never forget what you have done for me. I will live one of the most beautiful experiences of my life.
Mississippi poultry farmers who suffered losses when restaurants shuttered during the COVID-19 pandemic will receive $23 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Mark Leggett, president of the Mississippi Poultry Association, said the federal aid is a first. Because most chicken farmers are contract growers for poultry processing plants, they’re not eligible for federal crop insurance and had not previously received any federal assistance during the pandemic despite suffering losses.
“Almost in one day it seemed, all the restaurants closed,” Leggett said. “That’s about half of the chicken sold. Of the chicken that’s not exported, about half goes to restaurants and the other half to groceries … It was a shock back in 2020, and some growers did really suffer.”
USDA announced that $270 million in pandemic aid would be given to poultry and livestock contract producers nationwide. A total of $22.7 million will be distributed to 557 Mississippi chicken growers and about $400,000 to state egg contract producers who suffered pandemic losses.
Leggett said there are about 1,600 poultry producers in Mississippi. Poultry (including eggs) has been the states largest agricultural crop for nearly three decades, with annual farm production of about $3 billion a year for the last decade.
Sens. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Chris Coons of Delaware led a successful bipartisan effort urging USDA to set aside the assistance for chicken farmers in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021.
“Chicken farmers are a vitally important part of Mississippi agriculture,” Wicker said in a statement. “I appreciate the USDA awarding these funds and working with farmers to ensure they have the resources needed following challenges associated with COVID-19.”
Leggett said the chicken market has rebounded from the early pandemic downturn.
“Demand is up,” Leggett said. “I know this is true at my house — as the price of beef goes up, people fall back to chicken. That has helped with demand.”
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As politicians haggle over grams and taxes, THC levels and canopy space, license fees and excises, thousands of chronically ill Mississippi patients and families who believed they would have access to medical marijuana months ago per the will of the voters feel lost in the shuffle.
The Legislature failed to approve a medical marijuana program for years, despite a groundswell to do so, so voters took matters in hand.
Gov. Tate Reeves and lawmakers promised to fix this post-haste. They got to arguing and didn’t.
Meanwhile, pain, nausea, seizures and pharmaceutical side effects don’t abate for the sickest of the sick in Mississippi.
Allison Pipkin has dealt with severe pain and nausea and “taken every kind of medicine you can take” since she was 11 and misdiagnosed with ulcerative colitis.
At age 14, Pipkin of DeSoto County was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease and had her colon removed. The surgery was expected to take six hours, but it took 12 because Pipkin’s colon had fused to other organs. She had to have a colostomy bag for three months until another surgery.
Allison Pipkin
Now 24, Pipkin describes a long arduous journey through numerous surgeries and pharmaceutical medicines — steroids, biologics, opioids, pain pumps and even methadone — and their side effects. She had to get special permission to start taking one drug years ago because of her age. Two medicines she takes now carry warnings not to combine them; one costs thousands of dollars a week without insurance. But she does because they’ve been keeping her disease in remission. She no longer takes narcotic pain medicine.
Pipkin has researched and seen reports of cannabis helping Crohn’s patients. She tried black-market marijuana in high school and it helped her chronic nausea and pain. She won’t use it now for fear of losing insurance, and because it’s illegal in Mississippi.
“It helped with the symptoms, even if it’s not a cure-all,” Pipkin said. “It’s better than narcotics. I don’t understand how they can prescribe a 14-year-old all these drugs … but can’t prescribe a plant that’s non-addictive.
“I feel like (politicians) don’t have any empathy for humanity at all,” Pipkin said. “If I was governing people, I would want them to be their happiest and healthiest to help society.”
Pipkin wants to continue her college education. She’s considering taking a scholarship offer from Arkansas State University. Arkansas voters legalized medical marijuana in 2016.
Shane Polk’s years of service in the 82nd Airborne, including a tour during Desert Storm, took a toll on his body.
He suffered two traumatic brain injuries, crushed vertebrae, and numerous other injuries jumping from planes and blowing things up and has to think for a bit to count up all the surgeries he’s had. And for the last 25 years his life “has revolved around seizures.”
Polk, 52, of Biloxi suffers grand mal seizures and dryly notes, “One wrong seizure for me, and I’m dead.” He’s also had two mini-strokes and suffers from migraine headaches.
At one point, Polk was having 20 to 30 seizures a week, sometimes three or four on a bad day. He was taking multiple medications a day and they didn’t appear to be helping. He quit taking opioids because “it got to where it didn’t help” and he didn’t want to become addicted.
Shane Polk
Polk said he was feeling “over-medicated” and miserable, taking handfuls of prescriptions a day about four years ago when he heard on television that cannabis can help seizures and other ailments. He had a friend in Colorado — which had legalized both medical and recreational marijuana — and he went for an extended visit.
“I tried cannabis, and it worked,” Polk said.
Polk is off most of the medications he was taking, his seizures are down to one every four or five months and his pain is reduced.
“It’s not a cure-all, but I’d say I’m 80% better,” Polk said. “I’m doing all right for the shape I’m in.”
But Polk has to resort to the black market for marijuana in Mississippi.
“I don’t want to and I shouldn’t have to,” Polk said. “It’s almost embarrassing — you want to hide that you use it. It’s a risk, but I also might hit my head or not wake up from the next seizure … I’m using this for medicine, and I want a doctor to be in charge. I want it regulated and monitored.
“For whoever is making these decisions — the governor — what if it was your kid or grandkid suffering? I feel like we’re just getting pushed aside because of politics. People are suffering who don’t need to be.”
Jeanne Tate is one of about 3,000 people in Mississippi dealing with sickle cell disease, which affects the body’s red blood cells, hinders the flow of oxygen and, Tate says, “causes unbearable pain I wouldn’t wish on anyone.”
Tate has dealt with blood transfusions, pharmaceutical pain medication and “sickle cell crises” which can last anywhere from a few hours to weeks at a time, causing terrible pain.
Tate, an accountant from Byram and chair of the Mississippi Sickle Cell Foundation, is 49 — which she proudly offers because “a lot of our patients don’t live to be 49.” The median U.S. life expectancy for someone with sickle cell disease is 47.
Tate says research has shown benefits of medical cannabis for sickle cell patients, and she believes it could help many reduce or eliminate opioid use for pain.
Jeanne Tate
She’s been disheartened by the delays on approving medical marijuana in Mississippi.
“Our politicians need to do what’s right by the people that put them in office,” Tate said. “… It’s sad to say, but to be honest, I really don’t have a lot of faith that they will get it done quickly. That’s why Initiative 65 was created from the start, because for so many years our lawmakers wouldn’t do anything. This is still going to take time, even if they pass it. Patients are probably looking at another two years before they’ll find relief. It’s a shame this state drags its feet on so many issues. I don’t have confidence right now that it’s going to happen. I just don’t.”
Jenna Leigh Robinson was seven when she was diagnosed with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy. She had a seizure at her elementary school, about five months after Hurricane Katrina had destroyed the Robinsons’ Biloxi home and the family moved to D’Iberville.
Paul Robinson said Jenna, the youngest of his and wife Toni’s three daughters, “took the diagnosis better than her parents did.”
“She got on with life,” Robinson said.
Jenna loved to dance — “had an absolute passion for it, and loved to sing and act.” The family owns a dance studio on the Coast, and Jenna danced and taught. In her teens, she started her own successful business, providing characters for parties and events. At 16 she was offered an acting, singing and modeling contract by a New Orleans talent firm.
But Jenna’s epilepsy was causing too many problems, and she had to decline the contract to focus on her health. At 17, doctors told the Robinsons Jenna’s epilepsy was “refractory.”
“That means there’s nothing left on a pharmaceutical shelf, that they’ve tried everything and it’s not working,” Robinson said. At its worst, Jenna was having 100 seizures a day, “focal” or “absence” seizures that would last about 20 seconds each. Whenever a medication would appear to work, Robinson said, the epilepsy would advance and “her brain would figure out a way to get around the drugs, cause breakthrough seizures.” The medications often had terrible side effects, and many required tapering to stop taking them even when they caused problems.
But Jenna never let her epilepsy get her down — she would “dance it off,” her father said. Despite not being able to attend regular school, Jenna excelled in a home school program, and by 17 was already into her fifth college course, and planning a degree in business administration.
Jenna Robinson
With pharmaceuticals not working, Robinson said he broached the idea of medical marijuana with Jenna after learning about numerous clinical trials showing promise. But Jenna refused.
“The DARE (youth anti illegal drug) Program had done it’s job,” Robinson said. “She wanted nothing to do with it, said ‘I’m not smoking dope.’” But after explaining that there were inhalers, transdermal patches, nasal sprays and other formulations of the drug, Robinson said, “we had convinced her we would open that door after she finished her senior recital.”
“We were hoping we could manage it until we could get to a better place,” Robinson said. “We were going to go on a long vacation to California or Colorado, and were even discussing how to establish residences there — we have businesses here that had to be maintained — and we were going to find a doctor considered great in that field and do it in accordance with them.”
But Jenna died sometime in the early morning of April 4, 2016. Her death was listed as Sudden Unexplained Death in Epilepsy Patients, or SUDEP. Her father still rides an emotional roller coaster as he describes happy memories of his vivacious, talented daughter, and recounts her death. Jenna’s legacy lives on in Jenna Robinson Charities, founded by family and friends to support research into SUDEP and epilepsy and a scholarship fund.
Paul Robinson became an advocate for Mississippi Initiative 65, which voters approved to create a medical marijuana program. He believes the drug could have helped his daughter, and he’s dismayed by the judicial and political hang-fire, and the governor not calling lawmakers into special session in 2021 to approve a program as he promised.
“I think Gov. Reeves is a good guy, but I think he keeps jumping the track on this,” Robinson said. “It looked like the House and Senate were there, in agreement. The people spoke very clearly, as decisive a vote as you can get. Gov. Reeves is always saying he’s a numbers guy. Well, I don’t think he’s thinking about the numbers of people who need this relief. I don’t think he understands what it’s like to have somebody suffering, without a good pharmaceutical product that gives the relief they need. I think he he had ever been in that position he would not be so petty.”
Angie Calhoun of Puckett, founder of the Mississippi Cannabis Patients Alliance, has been one of the leaders of the citizen-led drive for medical marijuana. Her son, Austin, suffered seizures and other issues for years, eventually moving out of state when he became an adult so he could be treated with medical marijuana.
Calhoun said she believes “the patients have been put on the backburner” amid the political debate over medical marijuana in Mississippi.
“So far, we have been run through the ringer,” Calhoun said. “We passed Initiative 65 with overwhelming support, only to later have the Supreme Court overturn that. Two legislators (Sen. Kevin Blackwell and Rep. Lee Yancy) have stepped up and written a wonderful bill — it gives patients what they need without too many regulations and hurdles, but also implements a really well regulated, safe program. But we’ve been left in limbo.
“This should be a matter of love and compassion,” Calhoun said. “… We do not need for patients to have to suffer any longer. Anyone who’s ever suffered or had a love one suffer with severe pain, seizures, chronic illness understands that.
“I am begging and pleading with legislators to go in within the first day or two of their session and pass the Mississippi Medical Cannabis Act, and begging the governor to listen to the Legislature, listen to the voters, open his heart up and get it signed into law.”
The omicron variant is now the dominant strain in Mississippi and is causing a significant increase in case numbers across the state.
In a press briefing Wednesday, the Mississippi Department of Health said case numbers for the last seven days are double what they were the week before, and since Dec. 20, 67% of cases in Mississippi have been caused by the omicron variant.
“We really are now in the fifth wave of COVID for Mississippi,” said Dr. Paul Byers, state epidemiologist.
The Department of Health has been working to expand access to testing in areas with high demand and has increased the number of available testing slots across the state by 5,000 since Sunday night up to 20,301 slots. Around 13,000 of those slots were filled at the time of the briefing. Testing is also available through local physicians’ offices and clinics.
To make an appointment for the Health Department’s free testing, click here.
Jim Craig, director of the office of health protection, said that while Mississippi does not currently have a shortage of test kits, he expressed concern about the ongoing healthcare worker shortage in the state, part of a larger national trend. There have been 1,700 covid-related emergency room visits across the state during the first few days of this week, he said.
State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said the omicron variant is significantly more contagious than previous forms of the virus, but evidence does suggest that omicron causes less severe illness. He also said that vaccinated people and those with prior infection can still get and spread omicron.
Throughout the briefing, Dobbs and Byers emphasized that getting a booster shot is the best way to get full protection against omicron. Currently, 48% of Mississippians are fully vaccinated, according to the Department of Health. Schedule a vaccine appointment through MSDH here.
Monoclonal antibody treatments, which were a critical part of the fight against the delta variant, are generally less effective against omicron. One type of monoclonal antibody has still been effective, but Mississippi currently has a limited supply. Dobbs said that antiviral pills and an increased supply of monoclonal antibodies will be coming soon, but in the meantime, it is important to wear a mask and get vaccinated and boosted.
“We’ve always said that monoclonals are Plan B and the vaccine is Plan A, and you don’t want to rely on your backup plan when Plan A is still an option,” Dobbs said.
Byers and Dobbs also addressed the new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance announced Monday, saying that the Department of Health has always followed CDC guidance and it was safe to exit a quarantine after five days as long as a COVID-positive person continues to wear a mask at all times.
“This is really a love thy neighbor sort of moment,” Dobbs said.
