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For some time after the Supreme Court shot down a vote of the people to create a Mississippi medical marijuana, it appeared fait accompli that lawmakers would enact a program, per the “will of the voters.”

Legislative leaders got to work over the summer to draft a bill. Gov. Tate Reeves said he would call lawmakers into special session to pass it once there was general agreement on the plan.

But it took a while to get such a draft together, and it wasn’t until late September that legislative leaders told Reeves they had consensus on a bill. Then Reeves said he had problems with it — particularly that it would allow patients to receive too much marijuana (even though the 4 ounces a month was less than the 5 ounces voters had approved in 2020). Law enforcement, religious, medical and other lobbies stepped up opposition to the measure.

As the debate devolved into how many joints can be rolled from a gram of pot, the potential for a special session faded. Last week, the regular legislative session began, and whatever golden hour there might have been for medical marijuana after the 2020 passage of Initiative 65 appears to have faded.

As time drags on, passage of a Mississippi medical marijuana program in a legislative session crowded with many other major issues becomes less assured , or even less likely. Senate leadership has indicated they intend to move relatively quickly — as early as this week — on the issue, but even those that support a program in general are coming up with pet peeves with the draft or things they want taken out or put into the measure. Alternative bills are being drafted.

And in the House, which doesn’t plan to take up its own version of the bill, Speaker Philip Gunn stated bluntly last week that “candidly, that is not a top issue for us” and that House leadership was trying to push the bill in “a more conservative direction,” indicating that there’s no longer agreement on the agreements ostensibly reached in the fall.

And for that matter, Reeves has threatened a veto if lawmakers pass what they agreed to then. Some legislative leaders have said they’re standing pat on the amount of marijuana allowed in the bill, but Gunn’s comments would at the least raise doubt about a veto-proof vote on that issue.

READ MORE: Lost in the shuffle: Chronically ill people suffer as Mississippi politicians quibble over medical marijuana

The overwhelming 2020 vote for Initiative 65 obviously caught politicians’ attention and prompted promises to quickly reinstate the program after the high court shot it down. There’s been a dearth of publicly released polling on the issue lately, but it would appear many politicians — perhaps with some internal polling in hand — don’t view it as No. 1 with a bullet among voters any more, or at least not an issue that could get your photo stripped from the Capitol hallway.

Medical marijuana has been a divisive issue in the Legislature for years, hence the citizen-and marijuana industry-led initiative.

As the clock ticks, headwinds appear to grow against lawmakers passing a Mississippi medical marijuana program.

READ MORE: Mississippi’s medical marijuana mess

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Mississippi Today’s political team discusses how a Mississippi medical marijuana program may be growing less likely as lawmakers cannot seem to get on the same page. 

Listen to more episodes of The Other Side.

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On this episode of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-At-Large Marshall Ramsey visits with U.S.S. Alabama museum technician Matthew McCluney. McCluney, a Gautier resident, talks about his passion for preserving a giant piece of American and Naval history.

The U.S.S. Alabama, launched in 1942 during World War 2, is a veteran of both the Battle of the Atlantic and numerous combat actions against the Japanese in the Pacific. Mothballed after the war, the 45,000-ton U.S.S. Alabama was presented to the citizens of Alabama in 1965 and towed to Mobile’s U.S.S. Alabama Battleship Memorial Park. The park also is home to the Gato-Class submarine U.S.S. Drum, 45 historic aircraft and various artillery pieces.

McCluney has created numerous exhibits throughout the ship and along with his teammates helps keep the Alabama shipshape for the nearly 18 million visitors who have visited it throughout the years and for those who will visit it in the future.

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Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann believes a plea to Mississippians’ better angels ultimately will lead to Medicaid expansion.

Granted, Hosemann does not utter the phrase “better angels,” but listen closely and it is obvious that he is appealing to them. He also does not want to use the term “Medicaid expansion.” Instead, he would rather discuss everyday scenarios of working Mississippians who suffer, who die because they don’t have access to health insurance.

Hosemann said legislation to provide that health care access will pass “when we start focusing on real life Mississippians… who are really suffering who don’t have to be, who are dying leaving their children motherless. I think we have a sense of values in Mississippi, and I think that will be energized by that discussion.”

Hosemann recently was asked by a reporter about the possibility of expanding Medicaid.

“What is expansion of Medicaid? That is a lazy question,” Hosemann retorted. “What you need to be thinking about is how are we going to cover people who are working in Mississippi who have catastrophic illnesses? That is the real question.”

Hosemann told media members they need to focus on real life consequences instead of “some nomenclature that is three presidents ago.”

Granted, Medicaid expansion was enacted during the first term of former President Barack Obama in 2009. But in fairness to the media, the original Medicaid program was enacted during the 1960s and Social Security was created in the 1930s, yet their names have not changed.

But in fairness to the lieutenant governor, he understands the value of providing health care access and because of the political rhetoric in the state he cannot state the obvious: that the most cost-efficient way to provide health care is by expanding Medicaid as is allowed under the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare.

Under Medicaid expansion, estimates show, between 100,000 to 300,000 primarily working Mississippians, who currently have no insurance, can gain health care with the federal government paying the bulk of the cost. Multiple studies have found that Medicaid expansion will save the state money because of the influx of federal funds.

The two politicians who make it nearly impossible to expand Medicaid in Mississippi are Gov. Tate Reeves and House Speaker Philip Gunn who often, boldly proclaim their opposition to Obamacare.

Perhaps Hosemann, ignoring the political rhetoric and turning focus to helping Mississippians, is also appealing to the better angels of Reeves and Gunn, who often speak of the importance of their Christian faith.

It complicates matters because it is possible — some say likely — that Gunn will square off against Reeves in the 2023 Republican primary for governor, and because of the staunch Mississippi Republicans who will vote in that primary, neither candidate wants to be seen as supporting Obamacare.

Recent polling indicates that Mississippi politicians’ fear of being linked to Obamacare might be exaggerated. A January 2022 poll by AARP found that 68% of Mississippians over the age of 50, including 57% of Republicans polled, favor expanding Medicaid. Other polls, such as those conducted by Chism Research and Millsaps College, have shown similar results.

But polls have not moved Gunn and Reeves.

“I just don’t think that Medicaid expansion is realistic,” Gunn said last week. “Personally, I’m not for it. I’ve been very clear that I’m against it. I don’t see that as a way forward in Mississippi. We need to be looking for ways to get people off Medicaid, not put them on Medicaid. But the bottom line is it’s all an academic discussion until you’ve got the votes (in the supermajority Republican Legislature), and I don’t think the votes exist.”

The cold hard truth that Hosemann knows is that as long as Gunn and Reeves are opposed, the votes won’t exist.

So instead of talking about expanding Medicaid, Hosemann would rather tell the story of a mother of two in Greenwood who worked as a store clerk and was married to a mechanic. Like most people working in similar jobs, she did not have health insurance. Her employer did not provide it, and she could not afford to purchase private coverage.

She developed breast cancer but delayed seeing a doctor because of the lack of insurance.

“By the time she got to the hospital, they could just give her palliative care and she died,” Hosemann said. “And that is happening in Mississippi to working people… Rather than get into some easy question like that (about expanding Medicaid), I think we ought to start focusing on how we provide health care to working Mississippians.

“I think when we do that it takes down a lot of the barriers that may have been built on political discourse.”

Then, Hosemann believes, Mississippians will hear and listen to their better angels.

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Nearing the end of a week in which Mississippi recorded a record number of COVID-19 infections, a majority being the heavily infectious omicron variant, state health officials are warning of the weeks to come and emphasizing the need for residents to stay up to date on their vaccinations.

“We know we’ve got some weeks ahead of us of severe stress, and the health system especially, is going to be going through a lot of pains,” State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said during a Friday press conference. 

Currently, around 73% of positive tests being sequenced in the state are showing omicron infections. State Epidemiologist Paul Byers said that while an omicron infection does produce milder illness than the delta variant, the sheer number of cases the state is currently seeing will translate to increased hospitalizations and deaths in the coming weeks. This problem is almost certain to be exacerbated by the low number of monoclonal antibody and antiviral pill treatments the state is receiving.

As of Friday, only 11 ICU beds were available across the state’s level one and two hospitals. Over the past week alone, the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients has increased 64% and the number of those patients on ventilators has increased by 50%.

Some Mississippi patients have had to be transferred out of state since the omicron wave began due to the lack of open, staffable beds. If this wave of infections overwhelms the hospital system like delta, health officials said it’s unlikely the system will be propped up by the travel nurses and field hospitals utilized during that wave. 

“I don’t know that we’re going to be able to draw in the type of staffing levels that we saw in delta from anywhere in the country right now, including some of these federal resources,” Jim Craig, Senior Deputy and Director of MSDH’s Office of Health Protection, said. 

Dobbs also urged Mississippians to avoid going to already overwhelmed emergency rooms for COVID-19 testing. Many have gone to an ER for testing in recent weeks, as they were unable to purchase an at-home test or schedule one at a clinic or testing site over the holidays. 

“We’ll do what we can from a health department perspective, but please understand that emergency rooms are for emergencies,” Dobbs said. 

The state is getting 50,000 additional rapid antigen tests next week, and is expanding the number of testing slots and locations when possible. 

Most of the cases Mississippi is seeing during the omicron wave are among younger individuals, with the most rapid growth in the 25-39 age group. The most severe illness is occurring in those aged 65 and older. The majority of hospitalizations and 65% of the deaths seen in January have occurred in this age group.

While pediatric hospitalizations are low, they’re still present in Mississippi. As of Friday, 19 children diagnosed with COVID-19 are hospitalized at Children’s of Mississippi, the state’s only hospital specifically for kids and teens. Four of those patients are in intensive care and two are on ventilators. 

The vaccination rate among children and teenagers in Mississippi is much lower than any other age groups and the same groups in neighboring states. Only 36% of kids in the 12-17 age group are fully vaccinated, and only 5% of 5-11 year-olds are. 

“We do need to get more children fully vaccinated. That’s what’s gonna keep children out of the hospital and out of the ICU,” Byers said. 

Health officials are also urging Mississippians to stay up to date on their vaccinations, which now includes getting a booster shot if you’re eligible. Byers said that only 2% of the state’s COVID-19 deaths have occurred in individuals who were fully vaccinated and received a booster. The vast majority of hospitalizations and deaths are among the unvaccinated. 

Anyone ages 12 and up can get a booster dose of the Pfizer vaccine five months after their primary regimen. Anyone ages 18 and up can get a booster dose of the Pfizer vaccine five months after their primary regimen, or a Johnson & Johnson booster two months after. You can schedule a vaccination appointment at your local health department office here.

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