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‘The state threw them to the wolves’: Health department struggles to manage massive medical marijuana program

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‘The state threw them to the wolves’: Health department struggles to manage massive medical marijuana program

by Sara DiNatale, Mississippi Today
January 26, 2023

Behind closed doors, Mississippi’s eight-person medical cannabis office is struggling against its workload.

The Health Department office charged by the Legislature with running Mississippi’s new medical marijuana program is steeped in disorganization: agents rarely visit cultivation sites, application backlogs reach hundreds deep, and lags in communication with licensees often stretch on for weeks, a Mississippi Today investigation found.

Business owners feel frustrated, unheard and worried that the millions of dollars they invested — and the tens of thousands they paid in fees to the state — could go up in smoke.

“The state threw them to the wolves,” cultivator Joel Harper said of the fledgling marijuana office. “They should have paid the money to bring in professionals, even a third-party consultant. Instead, they’re sending people out into the cannabis world who have no idea about anything cannabis.”

At the center is a handful of workers, tasked with unrolling a massive program without enough staffing to operate efficiently. Cultivators say when they do hear back from the office, the messages are incomplete or inconsistent – especially when it comes to how they construct their farming facilities.

And that’s if they hear back at all. The office already has mountains of unprocessed paperwork.

As of the second week of January, 277 work permit applications sat in a queue waiting to be processed, according to copies of the office’s records obtained by Mississippi Today. Could-be cannabis workers can’t start their jobs without permits. Another 995 patients had yet to to be told whether or not they’ve been approved for their dispensary cards.

Three dozen businesses had their own applications stuck, along with almost 40 other medical practitioners, the records show.

In a statement to Mississippi Today, department of health spokesperson Liz Sharlot acknowledged the backlogs.

“We are working with the MMCP (Mississippi Medical Cannabis Program) Licensing Director and the team on how to put more efficient processes in place,” she said.

Even when the office hired new workers – growing from four to eight in recent months – little was done to train them on the law and the industry, an employee of the health department told Mississippi Today. The employee spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of repercussions.

The health department said in October, when Mississippi Today first reported the backlogs, it was working to fill 25 more positions. That has yet to happen.

The health department worker said much of the disorganization stems from the office’s former director Kris Jones Adcock.

The Department of Health did not answer questions related to plans to increase staffing levels or what medical marijuana-related training their current staffers received.

“The people of Mississippi deserve better,” the worker said.

A Mockingbird Cannabis employee sorts through medical marijuana at the facility in Raymond, Miss., January 20, 2023.

During one five-week period, Adcock held three jobs simultaneously within the health department: the cannabis role, the head of a domestic violence office, and a promotion to a department-wide role as assistant senior deputy.

The health department didn’t respond to questions about the effects managing three positions may have had on her ability to run the cannabis office. Adcock now holds only one department-wide role: Assistant Senior Deputy to the Senior Deputy.

Adcock announced two weeks ago that the office’s attorney, Laura Goodson, would be the acting director.

The health department employee also said Adcock set a tone of rushed processes and absentee leadership that has left the marijuana office in clean-up mode.

“There was no due diligence on some of the applications,” the worker said. “Some of it was her knee-jerk reaction to get stuff out the door after it (the backlog) built up. Instead of an orderly process, it was just rushed.”

Emails obtained by Mississippi Today show that it wasn’t just cultivators struggling to hear back. The head of a lab testing facility also expressed frustration.

“The complete lack of communication is just not feasible any longer,” Rapid Analytics director Jeff Keller wrote to Adcock on Dec. 16. “I am begging you to please just name the time on Monday and I will make it work.”

A month later, one of Keller’s employees sent his own desperate plea to the office.

“I’m trying to find out when I’ll be able to start working there,” he wrote about his job at the lab. “My background check was cleared on December 15th … I’ve left multiple messages but have not received a response.”

The CEO of test facility Steep Hill, Cliff Osbon, sent his own email on Jan. 13 on behalf of four employees who still needed their work permits so they could begin work and the lab could start testing marijuana.

Neither testing lab responded to Mississippi Today’s request for a comment.

Zack Wilson, a micro-grower in Potts Camp, said he had a worker waiting more than two weeks on a work permit.

“You send an email. Wait two weeks. Email again,” Wilson said. “You just sit and wait. I know they’re short staffed, but come on guys.”

Joel Harper, owner and founder of Pharm Grown, inspects marijuana plants at his facility in Como, Miss., Monday, January 23, 2023.

Cultivators say unanswered questions have led to a murky-at-best understanding of how some of the regulations are being interpreted and enforced.

That’s bubbled up with the use of so-called “adapted greenhouses,” putting already competitive cultivators more at odds. The regulations call for no outdoor growing, a solid roof, permanent walls and slab foundations.

In the early days after the law was passed, Harper, the head of Como-based Pharm Grown Canna Company, said officials made it clear to industry hopefuls that greenhouses would not be approved as growing facilities. So he, like many others, invested money in renovating a large warehouse that would rely on artificial lights.

In the last few months, he’s noticed much cheaper greenhouse-style structures popping up with the health department’s approval.

Harper and others who followed the bill’s creation closely say greenhouses go against the spirit of what legislators intended.

The debate comes down to word definitions that aren’t spelled out in the law itself. If the bill doesn’t allow any “outdoor” growing, that should mean the structure can’t utilize the sun, some argue. The greenhouses have clear-plastic roofs to use a mix of sun and artificial light. If the facility needs to have a solid and secure roof, clear plastic shouldn’t be permitted, according to some interpretations.

Cultivators like Wilson don’t see it that way.

“The roof certainly isn’t made of liquid or gas,” he said. “Plastic is a solid.”

Wilson said his site plan, including the materials he was using, were all approved by the health department when he handed in his application. He was given his cultivation license in August, according to public records.

Another cultivator, Jason McDonald, is building his own greenhouse under the company name SADUJA. He received his license on Dec. 22. He said his roof is two layers of clear plastic. He has screened-in shutter windows, a cement foundation and plumbing. McDonald runs a tea farm. He’s used to meeting regulations and dealing with bureaucracy and hopes to start growing marijuana by the end of the month.

Mississippi Today also obtained documents Adcock signed off on the site plan, including a hand-drawing where the facility was labeled “greenhouse.”

“I emailed them and asked: ‘Will this greenhouse we’re planning to build meet regs?” McDonald recalled. “They came back and said: ‘you need to read the regulations’ so, I quoted the regulations and said ‘what’s the ruling on this?’ and they said ‘you need to read the regulations.’ I added the specific subsection, and then never got an answer back.”

The word greenhouse, he said, can summon something different depending on the cultivator. He, like others, agrees Mockingbird Cannabis should have been cited for its greenhouse that was under scrutiny in the fall because it had roll-up sides, not permanent walls.

Mockingbird also built a massive state-of-the-art warehouse as its main cultivation site.

“I will tell you we haven’t done anything we didn’t disclose to the Department of Health and in our application,” Mockingbird CEO Clint Patterson told Mississippi Today in October.

Harper and other warehouse operators don’t blame the small businesses for building greenhouses — they’re cheaper to construct and run, leading to significantly higher profit margins. They blame the state for approving them.

“We want them to succeed,” Harper said of greenhouse growers. “We just want them to do it in the way everybody else had to.”

The leading authors behind the bill that created the medical marijuana program could not be reached by Mississippi Today after repeated requests for comment. Rep. Lee Yancey said in the fall that it was the health department’s job to interpret the rules, and if the statutes were not clear enough, it would be addressed in the Legislature.

Sharlot, the health department spokesperson, said it did not approve a model for greenhouses and pointed to the “regulations that specify the physical requirements for a cultivation facility.”

“The MSDH met and continues to meet its statutory requirements as it did with the aggressive timelines in creating the MMCP,” she said.

A Mockingbird Cannabis tends to the “mother” medical marijuana plants at Mockingbird Cannabis in Raymond, Miss., January 20, 2023. These plants are used for create clones, which are cut from the “mother” plant and grow into plants themselves.

On Jan. 11, Adcock brought her recommended changes to cannabis regulations before the board of health hoping for the members’ swift approval.

Public commenting regarding updates to the regulations were open for less than a week, ending the day before Christmas Eve. It got about 150 comments, Adcock told the board.

The end result was a thick stack of paper delivered to each board member fewer than two days before the meeting.

“To get 1,000 pages, less than 48 hours before our meeting, it’s almost impossible to review to know what we’re really doing,” said Jim Perry, the head of the board’s cannabis committee.

Adcock’s proposed changes covered everything from batch sizes for testing to whether a cultivation license could cover more than one growing space under a single license.

During the meeting, Perry said he wasn’t comfortable with passing changes without time to review them and ask questions. State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney apologized to the board for the ream of paper and the lack of notice. He promised it wouldn’t happen again.

“Cannabis is special and unique and needs to be heavily vetted,” Edney said at the meeting.

Adcock went over some of the regulation changes she said were the most “emergent,” but ultimately the board chose not to act.

Following the meeting, Perry told a Mississippi Today reporter the committee process was created so “we can hear from people and be able to make well-informed and not rushed decisions.”

A committee meeting about the regulations has been scheduled for Jan. 26 at 3 p.m.

Marijuana plants are in place at Pharm Grown in Como, Miss., Monday, January 23, 2023.

With the constant flood of applicants, strapped-for-time staffers aren’t making regular site visits, according to cultivators and those with inside knowledge of the office. That means growers can get their provisional four-month licenses extended, begin growing, finish batches and have them tested and sent to market without having ever met an agent in person.

Onsite visits are required for a renewal of a license, but not for moving a provisional license to a permanent one, according to the health department. When asked about the frequency of agent visits, Sharlot emphasized that the office is remotely monitoring all cultivators with the seed-to-sale tracking program.

Meanwhile, the 163 licensed dispensaries are eying the number of patients – Sharlot said 1,732 as of Monday – who have licenses to purchase medical cannabis. They’re worried it won’t be enough to sustain a business after months paying rent without revenue.

The department of health worker who spoke to Mississippi Today said whenever they make a dent in the patient queue, it doesn’t take long to climb back over 1,000.

The health department says it has licensed a total of 73 cultivators; 12 processors; four waste disposal companies; nine transportation companies; three testing labs; 151 medical practitioners; and 975 workers with permits.

It’s a constant battle to keep up.

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

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Mississippi Stories: Michael May of Lazy Acres

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January 21, 2025

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mississippitoday.org – rlake – 2025-01-21 14:51:00

In this episode of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-at-Large Marshall Ramsey takes a trip to Lazy Acres. In 1980, Lazy Acres Christmas tree farm was founded in Chunky, Mississippi by Raburn and Shirley May. Twenty-one years later, Michael and Cathy May purchased Lazy Acres. Today, the farm has grown into a multi seasonal business offering a Bunny Patch at Easter, Pumpkin Patch in the fall, Christmas trees and an spectacular Christmas light show.  It’s also a masterclass in family business entrepreneurship and agricultural tourism.

For more videos, subscribe to Mississippi Today’s YouTube channel.

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

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On this day in 1921

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1 day ago

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January 21, 2025

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mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2025-01-21 07:00:00

Jan. 21, 1921

George Washington Carver Credit: Wikipedia

George Washington Carver became one of the first Black experts to testify before Congress. 

His unlikely road to Washington began after his birth in Missouri, just before the Civil War ended. When he was a week old, he and his mother and his sister were kidnapped by night raiders. The slaveholder hired a man to track them down, but the only one the man could locate was George, and the slaveholder exchanged a race horse for George’s safe return. George and his brother were raised by the slaveholder and his wife. 

The couple taught them to read and write. George wound up attending a school for Black children 10 miles away and later tried to attend Highland University in Kansas, only to get turned away because of the color of his skin. Then he attended Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, before becoming the first Black student at what is now Iowa State University, where he received a Master’s of Science degree and became the first Black faculty member. 

Booker T. Washington then invited Carver to head the Tuskegee Institute’s Agriculture Department, where he found new uses for peanuts, sweet potatoes, soybeans and other crops. 

In the past, segregation would have barred Carver’s testimony before Congress, but white peanut farmers, desperate to convince lawmakers about the need for a tariff on peanuts because of cheap Chinese imports, believed Carver could captivate them — and captivate he did, detailing how the nut could be transformed into candy, milk, livestock feed, even ink. 

“I have just begun with the peanut,” he told lawmakers. 

Impressed, they passed the Fordney-McCumber Tariff of 1922. 

In addition to this work, Carver promoted racial harmony. From 1923 to 1933, he traveled to white Southern colleges for the Commission on Interracial Cooperation. Time magazine referred to him as a “Black Leonardo,” and he died in 1943. 

That same year, the George Washington Carver Monument complex, the first national park honoring a Black American, was founded in Joplin, Missouri.

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

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Legislative recap: 2025 tax cut battle has been joined

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January 20, 2025

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mississippitoday.org – Geoff Pender – 2025-01-20 12:00:00

After relatively brief debate and questioning given its magnitude, the state House passed the first meaningful legislation of the new session: House Bill 1, a measure that would eliminate the state income tax, trim taxes on non-prepared food and raise sales and gasoline taxes.

It would mark a sea change in state tax structure, a shift from income to consumption taxation.

“We are at a place where we can finally tell the hard-working people of Mississippi we can eliminate the tax on work,” House Ways and Means Chairman Trey Lamar, HB1’s author, told his colleagues.

The measure passed the House 88-24. It gained some Democratic support in the supermajority Republican House, with nine Democrats voting in favor, 24 against and 12 voting present.

The proposal garnered some bipartisan support because it includes at least a couple of items Democratic lawmakers have championed in the past: A gasoline tax to help fix crumbling roadways, and a reduction in the “grocery” tax, or the sales tax levied on unprepared food, of which Mississippi has the highest overall rate in the nation.

It still met with some Democratic opposition in part because it is a sea change toward more “regressive” taxation. Proponents say this is just, people should pay more for state services they use, such as roadways, and for things they buy as opposed to taxing income. Opponents say this places a proportionately higher tax burden on people of modest means.

“I would say the people hurt the most with this would be working people who have to put gas in their car to go to work or those who have to purchase materials to do a job,” House Democratic Leader Robert Johnson said.

Beyond that concern, opponents or skeptics worry that the foundation of the proposed tax overhaul would be built on shifting sands — a state economy that has been so rosy primarily from the federal government dumping billions of dollars in pandemic spending into Mississippi. With the federal spigot being cut off, some worry, the state economy could slump, and the massive tax cuts in this new plan could provide a state budget crisis, of which Mississippi has much experience, and underfunding of crucial services such as schools, roads, health care and law enforcement.

The largest hurdle Republican House leaders face in seeing their tax plan through to law is not in garnering bipartisan support. It’s internecine disagreement with the Senate Republican leadership, which still appears to harbor abovementioned concerns about overhauling tax structure in uncertain economic times and betting on growth to cover massive tax cuts.

Senate leaders have said they want to enact more tax cuts, but their plan has not yet been released. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann has provided some details of what he wants to see, but it would appear he wants a more cautious approach on cuts. He has not publicly opined on the tax increases in the House plan.

Quote of the Week

“Have you ever worn a belt and suspenders, lady? It’s a belt and suspenders approach.” — Rep. Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, to Rep. Omeria Scott, D-Laurel, during floor debate on Lamar’s bill to eliminate the state income tax and raise other taxes.

“No. I have not worn a belt and suspenders. I don’t know anyone who has worn a belt and suspenders,” Scott replied.

In Brief

House will renew push to legalize mobile sports betting

House Gaming Committee Chairman Casey Eure, R-Saucier, told Mississippi Today he plans on taking another crack at legalizing mobile sports betting in the state. In 2024, the House and Senate passed versions of legislation to permit online sports betting, but never agreed on a final proposal. Some lawmakers raised concerns that gambling platforms would have no incentive to partner with smaller casinos, and most of the money would instead flow to the Mississippi Gulf Coast’s already bustling casinos. Proponents say legalization would undercut the influence of illicit offshore sports betting platforms.

“I’ve been working on this bill for many years and I’m just trying to satisfy any concerns that the Senate may have so we can pass this and start collecting the tax dollars that the state deserves and not allowing everyone to place bets with these offshore accounts,” Eure said. “I feel like the state is losing between $40-$80 million a year in tax revenue.”

Sports wagering has been permitted in the state for years, but online betting has remained illegal amid fears the move could harm the bottom line of the state’s brick-and-mortar casinos. Mobile sports betting is legal in 30 states and Washington, D.C.,  according to the American Gaming Association. — Michael Goldberg

Hosemann makes Senate committee chair changes

Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann last week named new chairmen of committees, after former state Sen. Jenifer Branning was sworn into office as a new justice on the Mississippi Supreme Court. 

Sen. Chuck Younger, a Republican from Columbus, previously led the Senate Agriculture Committee and will replace Branning as chairman of the Transportation Committee. Sen. Neil Whaley, a Republican from Potts Camp, previously led the Senate Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks Committee, but will now lead the Senate Agriculture Committee. 

Here are the other changes to Senate committees: 

Sen. Ben Suber, a Republican from Bruce, will be the new chairman of the Senate Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks Committee 

Sen. Bart Williams, a Republican from Starkville, is the new chairman of the Senate Public Property Committee

Sen. Scott DeLano, a Republican from Gulfport, will lead the Senate Technology Committee 

Sen. Robin Robinson, a Republican from Laurel, will chair the Senate Labor Committee 

Sen. Angela Turner Ford, a Democrat from West Point, will lead the Senate Drug Policy Committee.  — Taylor Vance

What’s in a name? Democratic Rep. Scott hopes GOP majority will pass ‘Donald J. Trump Act’ bills

Perhaps tired of seeing many measures she authors ignored or shot down in flames by the Republican supermajority in the Mississippi Legislature, Democratic Rep. Omeria Scott of Laurel is trying a new strategy: naming bills after Republican President-elect Trump.

For this session, Scott has authored: House Bill 61, the “Donald J. Trump Voting Rights Restoration Act;” House Bill 62, the “Donald J. Trump Ban-The-Box Act … to prohibit public employers from using criminal history as a bar to employment;” and House Bill 249, the “Donald J. Trump Early Voting Act.” — Geoff Pender

More bills filed to criminalize abortion

Since the 2022 Dobbs Supreme Court decision overturned the constitutional right to an abortion, Mississippi lawmakers have proposed bills to criminalize workarounds to the state’s strict abortion ban – including criminalizing the abortion pill and out-of-state abortions. The 2025 legislative session is no exception. 

Rep. William Tracy Arnold, R-Booneville, filed House Bill 616 that would make it a felony to manufacture or make accessible medication abortion. Anyone convicted of the crime would be subject to a fine between $1,000 and $5,000, as well as imprisonment between two and five years. Last year, about 250 Mississippians each month requested medication abortion from Aid Access, the only online telemedicine service supplying medication abortion via mail in the U.S. 

Helping a minor receive an abortion would also be criminalized under House Bill 148 filed by Rep. Mark Tullos, R-Raleigh. That would include transporting a minor out of state to undergo an abortion, as well as helping a minor procure a medication abortion – both of which would be punishable by not less than 20 years in prison or a fine of not less than $50,000. — Sophia Paffenroth

By the Numbers

$1.1 billion

The estimated net annual cost of the House plan to eliminate the state income tax and raise sales taxes, once fully phased in. Proponents say economic growth would allow the state budget, currently about $7 billion a year, to absorb the cut. Eliminating the income tax would cost the state $2.2 billion in revenue, but the House plan would raise about $1.1 billion in other taxes in offset.

0

The amount of income tax Mississippians would pay after a 10-year phased in elimination of the state income tax. With previous cuts being phased in, state income taxes next year will already be reduced to 4%, among the lowest rates in the nation.

8.5 %

The new Mississippi sales tax, up from current 7%, under the House tax plan assuming most local governments would not opt out of adding a new 1.5% local sales tax.

13 cents more a gallon

The cost of the House’s proposed new 5% gasoline tax, based on last week’s average cost of gasoline in Mississippi of $2.62. The new 5% tax would be on top of the flat 18.4 cents a gallon current state excise on gasoline.

4%

The tax on unprepared food once a reduction of the current 7% would be phased in over a decade under the House plan. The state would over time reduce its sales tax on such groceries to 2.5%, but local governments would add a 1.5% sales tax to such items unless they opt out.

Full Legislative Coverage

Lawmakers must pass new legislation to improve access to prenatal care

Lawmakers will file another bill this session to help low-income pregnant women get into the doctor earlier – after the federal government rejected the program set up under last year’s law, because of discrepancies between what was written into state law and federal regulations for presumptive Medicaid eligibility. Read the story.

Proposal: eliminate income tax, add 5% tax on gas, allow cities, counties to levy local sales tax

House leaders last week unveiled a sweeping tax cut proposal that would eventually abolish the state income tax, slash taxes on groceries, increase local sales taxes and shore up funds for state and local road work. Read the story.

A new Mississippi law aims to limit jailing people awaiting mental health treatment. Is it working?

Officials say a new law to decrease the number of people being jailed solely because they need mental health treatment has led to fewer people with serious mental illness detained in jails – but the data is contradictory and incomplete. Lawmakers plan legislation to make more counties report the data. Read the story.

How soon we forget: Mississippi House push for record tax cuts revives fear of repeat budget crises

Eight years ago, from a combination of dozens of tax cuts the Legislature approved and a slumping economy, the state saw a budget crisis that resulted in severely underfunded schools, government layoffs, a near halt to building new roads and highways and problems maintaining the ones we have, too few state troopers on the highways and cuts to most major state services. Read the story.

NAACP legislative redistricting proposal pits two pairs of senators against each other

The Mississippi chapter of the ACLU has submitted a proposal to the courts to redraw the state’s legislative districts that creates two new majority-Black Senate districts and pits two pairs of incumbent senators against one another. Read the story.

Legislation to send more public money to private schools appears stalled as lawmakers consider other changes

Some top lawmakers in Mississippi’s Republican-controlled Legislature are prepared to make it easier for students to transfer between public schools but remain skeptical of sending more public money to private schools. Read the story.

House passes $1.1 billion income tax elimination-gas and sales tax increase plan in bipartisan vote

A bill that phases out the state income tax, cuts the state grocery tax and raises sales taxes and gasoline taxes passed the House of Representatives with a bipartisan vote on Thursday. Read the story.

Tate Reeves and other top Mississippi Republicans owe thanks to President Joe Biden

The tremendous cash surpluses that some state Republicans cite when defending their plan to eliminate the state’s income tax would not exist if not for the billions of dollars in federal funds that have been pumped into the state during Biden’s presidential tenure. Read the story.

Podcast: Mississippi transportation director discusses proposed new gasoline tax

Mississippi Department of Transportation Director Brad White tells Mississippi Today’s Geoff Pender and Taylor Vance he’s staying “in his lane” and out of the politics of a House tax overhaul that would eliminate the income tax and raise sales and gasoline taxes, but that he’s pleased lawmakers are trying to address the long running need for a steady new stream of money to help cover highway maintenance needs. Listen to the podcast.

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

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