Mississippi Today’s health team outlines the major health care issues the Mississippi Legislature is dealing with in the 2025 session.

READ MORE: As lawmakers look to cut taxes, Mississippi mayors and county leaders outline infrastructure needs

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Feb. 8, 1968

Students Samuel Ephesians Hammond Jr., Henry Ezekial Smith and Delano Herman Middleton were shot and killed by state troopers who fired on demonstrators at the South Carolina State College campus in Orangeburg, South Carolina. 

Fifty were also wounded in the confrontation with highway patrolmen at the rally supporting civil rights protesters. 

The students had been protesting at the All-Star Bowling Lane, which refused to serve the Black students. When police arrested protesters, chaos ensued, and police began beating protesters with billy clubs, sending eight students to the hospital. Angry at what had taken place, students set a bonfire in front of the campus. When authorities showed up to put out the fire, one officer was injured by an object thrown from the crowd. 

State troopers began firing their guns at the unarmed protesters, killing two students, Hammond and Smith, as well as Middleton, a high school student who was simply sitting on the steps of the freshman dormitory, waiting for his mother. 

The governor tried to blame “outside agitators” for what happened, but the federal government brought excessive force charges against the nine troopers. The jury acquitted the troopers, who claimed they acted in self-defense. 

In contrast, a jury did convict activist Cleveland Sellers of a riot charge in connection with the bowling alley protests, and he was forced to serve seven months in prison. 

The violence became known as the Orangeburg Massacre, foreshadowing the shootings that followed at Kent State University and Jackson State University. 

The on-campus arena has since been renamed in honor of the slain students. Jack Bass, the co-author of the “Orangeburg Massacre,” which details the slayings, has called for South Carolina to do something similar to what Florida did with regard to the Rosewood Massacre — award money to surviving children and college scholarships to grandchildren. 

“Perhaps,” he wrote, “it is time now for South Carolina to clear its conscience.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

The Mississippi House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday to limit kratom purchases to people 21 and older and to ban synthetic kratom products, also known as kratom extracts.

It’s one of four pending bills addressing kratom in the Legislature. Two bills impose an age limit on purchasing the substance, while the other two make kratom or kratom extracts a controlled substance. 

Critics of the herbal substance, which is commonly found in gas stations and tobacco or vape shops, say it is a highly addictive and dangerous drug that produces stimulant- and opioid-like effects. But advocates argue it is an effective tool for treating opioid use disorder, chronic pain and depression. 

“It’s one of those things that needs to have a fence around it in order to protect not only those that take it but also those who are affected by those that take it,” said Business and Commerce Chair Rep. Lee Yancey, R-Brandon. “And currently there is no fence.” 

HB1077, authored by Yancey, will require people to show proof of age when purchasing kratom and require retailers to keep the product behind the counter. It institutes fines for people under 21 who buy kratom and retailers that sell the product to them. 

It also outlaws synthetic kratom extracts, or products that contain high concentrations of 7-hydroxymitragynine, one of the chemical components in kratom that binds to the same receptors in the brain as opioids, like codeine.

The bill passed in the house unanimously with a vote of 115-0. It now advances to the Senate. 

A similar bill in the House authored by Judiciary B Chair Rep. Kevin Horan, R-Grenada, would impose the same regulations and levy a 5% tax on kratom products. Rep. Yancey said he plans to bring this legislation to the floor for consideration. 

More than thirty counties and cities in Mississippi restrict or ban kratom products at the local level. 

Two other bills in the Legislature this year seek to make forms of kratom a Schedule III controlled substance, which would institute criminal penalties for possession and make it available only with a prescription from a licensed health care provider.

Penalties for small amounts of Schedule III drugs in Mississippi include a maximum of one year in jail or a $1,000 maximum fine. Other Schedule III drugs include benzodiazepines, ketamine and steroids.

A bill in the Senate authored by Drug Policy Chair Sen. Angela Turner-Ford, D-West Point, would schedule only synthetic kratom products, while a bill in the House by Drug Policy Chair Rep. Stacey Hobgood-Wilkes, R-Picayune, would schedule all forms of the drug, including pure leaf forms. 

Turner-Ford said she does not support banning all forms of kratom, given that it is a naturally occurring plant. Hobgood-Wilkes said there are many natural substances that are dangerous.

Hobgood-Wilkes said she believes bills solely to restrict kratom to consumers 21 and older don’t go far enough. 

Yancey said he supports scheduling the substance, but has grown frustrated by unsuccessful attempts to ban the drug in years past. 

“This year I’ve decided that getting 50% of what I want is better than getting 0% of what I want,” he said. 

Dr. Jennifer Bryan, the president of the Mississippi Medical Association, urged lawmakers to schedule kratom as a controlled substance at a House Drug Policy hearing Jan. 28, given its highly addictive qualities. 

“This is what the next phase of the opioid crisis looks like,” she said. 

State Health Officer Dr. Dan Edney said he supports making the drug a Schedule III drug because it would remove kratom from stores but impose relatively small penalties on people who possess the drug. 

He pointed to the success of lawmakers designating tianeptine, another substance sold in gas stations and used to treat depression, a Schedule III drug in 2023. 

“I personally have not seen a case of tianeptine since the ban last year, except one case that got it from Louisiana,” he told lawmakers Jan. 28.

Christina Dent, an advocate who opposes a criminal justice approach to drugs and addiction, said banning kratom entirely would harm people who are using kratom as a tool to stop using opioids or for other health conditions, and create a dangerous underground market for the substance. 

“Banning kratom and putting people in jail who use it will lead to more crime, more health problems, and more families destabilized by incarceration,” she said.

She said she supports bills that restrict the sale of kratom to young people and ban the sale of synthetic kratom products. 

This is not the first time the Legislature has sought to regulate or ban kratom. The House passed a bill in 2022 to make kratom a Schedule I drug and a bill in 2023 to ban kratom extracts. Both died in the Senate. 

Yancey said passage of a bill to regulate kratom this year will depend on the Senate’s appetite for such legislation. 

“The Senate needs to step up and do their part,” he said. 

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.