A 71-year-old woman walks into a cannabis dispensary. She recently got her medical marijuana card, and she wants to branch out beyond just topicals. But she doesn’t want to inhale smoke. She also doesn’t want to eat anything with a lot of sugar in it, due to her acid reflux, or feel too “head high” from cannabis.

Apothecarium Green budtender Susan Boykin was at the inaugural Mississippi Budtender Awards and Competition Show in Biloxi at the end of last month when she first heard this scenario. Based on her experience behind her dispensary’s counter and careful study leading up to the competition, she knew exactly what she would tell the patient.

“I would tell her some gummies are sugar-free,” Boykin told The Dispatch on Thursday. “… And I would probably turn her toward Ripple powder packs. They’re gluten free, non-GMO, sugar free and tasteless. So she could put it in her coffee or juice. She could do whatever she wants and still get that – not head high – as much as body feeling, not hurting so much.”

Budtenders work in dispensaries, guiding those with medical marijuana cards toward ingestion methods that are right for their needs.

With answers like the one she gave, Boykin took home first place in the individual category of the competition in Biloxi, including a $1,000 prize. She was also a nominee for the Budtender of the Year award.

But answering questions like that is also a part of what Boykin loves doing daily behind the counter of Apothecarium Green. She said she first stepped behind the counter at the dispensary a little more than a year ago, as a way to help others who may need help with health issues that could be relieved by cannabis.

“I knew how much it helped people,” Boykin said. “I’ve had lots of friends that have had to move to California or Colorado because their children (need) it for epilepsy or multiple sclerosis, things like that.”

State law says that medical marijuana can only be purchased by medical cardholders from licensed dispensaries. Currently, Boykin said, there are 23 qualifying conditions to receive a medical marijuana card, including chronic pain and post-traumatic stress disorder – both which she commonly sees from behind the counter.

That means Boykin recommends products based on a patient’s needs, from papers and lighters to pipes, bongs, gummies, tinctures, spreads, powders, seltzers and other food additives. There are even sprays that can be applied to the inside of a cheek, Boykin said, if a patient has trouble with chewing and swallowing.

Budtender training requirements

Under state law, patients are allowed up to 24 Medical Cannabis Equivalency Units of cannabis each month. One MCEU is equivalent to 3.5 grams of flower, one gram of concentrate and up to 100 mg of THC infused products. Budtenders must know how to calculate the amount of cannabis sold to a patient across all of their ingestion types, Boykin said.

Boykin said she always tries to keep the individual in mind as they choose what’s best for them.

If a client still has fears or anxiety around taking cannabis, such as an older client, she typically advises them that they don’t have to smoke at all if they don’t want to, instead giving options to “taking it low and slow.”

“They crave the knowledge, and I love that we’re able to give that,” Boykin said.

Individuals working at a medical cannabis dispensary, including budtenders, are required to obtain work permits and eight hours of training, along with five hours of training annually.

Mississippi Budtender Awards and Mississippi Cannabis School Founder Candace McClendon said education has been “the heart of what we do,” since the program started in 2022.

“It’s important for budtenders to know what’s legal and what’s illegal,” McClendon said. “… And we definitely want budtenders to know about terpenes and how the endocannabanoid system supports the products that we have on the market. And also, just how to be patient friendly, what I call patient focused.”

Terpenes are naturally occurring chemical compounds found in plants and animals. The endocannabanoid system includes both receptors and proteins in the body that interact with cannabinoids – the active compounds in cannabis.

McClendon said budtenders, owners and management from 42 dispensaries across Mississippi were present for the first year of the awards. Budtenders showed both their passion for patients and knowledge of cannabis products by answering questions and working through real-life scenarios, like the one Boykin remembered.

Apothecarium Green is co-owned by Sophia Kibe and Corey Herring. Herring said it was really impressive to see Boykin move through the rounds of the competition, “setting herself apart” with her answers and knowledge. But he said the client-centered approach is something that all of the budtenders at the dispensary try to bring to all of their interactions.

“We strive to help the patient with the product,” Herring said. “The only way you can really do that is, one, care. And two, listen to what they say, and help them figure out what … would be the best terpene profile to help with the concern that they’re having, whether it be sleep apnea, neuropathy, pain… and there’s so much more than that.”

Both he and Kibe were proud that Boykin won, bringing her victory back to the city, Herring said.

“There were a lot of people in this competition, and a lot of big name brand companies, and we were elated to be able to take the victory home to a small shop in Columbus, Mississippi,” he said.

What Do You Think?

The use of an illegal drug can easily put an end to a worker’s compensation claim if there is evidence that the drug played a role in the injury. In Mississippi, if there is THC in an employee’s blood at the time of the accident, that employee has a difficult burden if he hopes to recover benefits; he’ll have to prove that the drug did not contribute to the accident.

In one case, a house framer was nailing wood when he fell through a gap in the roof. The gap was two feet by four feet–the kind of hole that, according to a supervisor, would be hard to fall through because one could put one’s arms out and catch oneself on the rafters before falling all the way through. Still, the supervisor said, the framer didn’t appear under the influence when he found him lying on the ground and called an ambulance.

At the hospital that same afternoon, a blood test found THC in the employee’s system. According to the framer, that had nothing to do with his fall. After all, he hadn’t smoked it for at least two weeks. He explained that he was taking it for PTSD related to his time in the military and because he was stressed out about a child support hearing that was scheduled to occur after the accident.  

The supervisor also said he was out during lunch and didn’t see the framer during that time, which was just before the fall happened. But the framer denied smoking marijuana during lunch.

The company denied the claim on the basis that THC, illegal in Mississippi, contributed to the injury.

Mississippi law provides that a worker is not entitled to compensation if the use of illegal drugs caused the accident. Further, if the employee tests positive for the presence, at the time of injury, of any drug illegally used, it will be presumed that the drug caused the injury. When that’s the case, the injury is not compensable, unless the employee proves that the drug played no role in the injury.

Were the framer’s injuries compensable?

A. No. The framer’s arguments that he wasn’t affected by THC at the time of the fall were just speculation; he provided no hard evidence.

B. Yes. No one saw him smoking marijuana.

If you selected A, you agreed with the court in Ladner v. Hinton Homes, LLC, No. No. 2024-WC-00941-COA (Miss. Ct. App. 05/06/25), which held that the employee failed to prove that marijuana did not contribute to the injury.

For more courts and compliance info from around the country, check out Simply Research

The court pointed out that the employee tested positive for THC, which is illegal in Mississippi, on the same day of the accident. While he claimed he hadn’t smoked marijuana for weeks, he also said that the child support hearing was making him stressed and was one of the reasons he smoked it. That hearing was still pending at the time of the accident, suggesting that he could have been continuing to smoke it for that same reason. Further, the supervisor didn’t observe him during lunch, leaving open the possibility that the framer smoked during that time, prior to going back on the roof and falling. 

Further, the size of the hole through which he fell suggested that he may have been affected by THC to the point that he could not stop himself from falling through it.

While the supervisor didn’t think the framer looked to be under the influence, the supervisor was involved in an emergency situation, and so could hardly have been expected to make clear observations on that issue.

Finally, the framer’s statements that the THC in his system did not cause the fall were merely speculative. He provided no specific evidence to overcome the presumption that the drug caused the injury.

The court upheld the denial of the claim.

               

JACKSON, Miss.— School districts could soon employ their own school attendance officers, taking the employment authority away from the Mississippi Department of Education while giving the officers pay raises under Senate Bill 2618. The Legislature would offer monetary support to school districts to finance their new employees.

The Senate passed its version of the bill on Feb. 12 and sent it to the House Education Committee for consideration.

The House Education Committee amended the bill during its March 4 meeting to add House Bill 1345’s language that students can transfer from one school district to another as long as the school district where the student wants to transfer gives written approval of the student’s decision. The school district must approve or deny the transfer within 60 days of the student’s notice; if the school district does not act within 60 days, the student is considered eligible for transfer. The Senate had allowed the House Bill, H.B. 1435, to die on the March 4 legislative deadline.

MDE must pay “an amount equal to the total funding formula funds” that is “allocated for each student transferring to a school district outside his or her district of residence” to the school district in which the student transferred under the amended version of S.B. 2618.

“While the lieutenant governor has supported the (school attendance officer) bill in the press as it relates to fighting chronic absenteeism, he has also repeatedly supported the House’s position on the open-enrollment bill and at least continuing the conversation in that bill,” Mississippi House Rep. Jansen Owen, R-Poplarville, said at the House Education Committee meeting on March 4. “What we’re going to do with this amendment, we will add House Bill 1435 to this bill, move it to the floor so we can continue the debate discussion, and then give the lieutenant governor an opportunity to accomplish two policy goals that he has stated multiple times in the press the last two months.”

“Anything (from the House Education Committee) that dies this year, we’re going to bring it back up next year,” House Education Committee Chairman Rep. Rob Roberson, R-Starkville, told reporters on March 4.

The House Education Committee approved its amended version of S.B. 2618, which provides both for school attendance officers and public school transfers, on March 4 and sent it to the House floor for a vote from all representatives.

The amended bill will still need approval from the Senate before it can go to the governor’s desk for his signature.

Mobile Sports Betting

Gaming licensees would need to get a lease from the State of Mississippi through the Mississippi Secretary of State to use or place an establishment on the public trust tidelands under Senate Bill 2381. It defines public trust tidelands as  “surface lands, tidelands and submerged lands owned by the state and held in trust for” Mississippi citizens.”

The Secretary of State would not be allowed to give a lease for a gaming establishment to build on “public trust tidelands on which the sand beach was constructed,” the legislation says.

However, House Gaming Committee Chairman Rep. Casey Eure, R-Saucier, amended the bill on March 4 to add language in Section 19 to add the Mississippi Mobile Sports Wagering Act, which would legalize online sports betting, online sports pools and online sports race books in the state. His decision to amend S.B. 2381 came on the same day that Senate Gaming Committee Chairman Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, allowed Eure’s mobile sports betting bill, House Bill 1302, to die in committee.

He told reporters on March 7 that it is a “possibility” that the tidelands legislation may die because of his amendment to the bill that added the mobile sports betting provision.

Companies that want to open up mobile sports betting platforms to Mississippians would have to obtain a manufacturer’s license from the state. Only players who are 21 or older and are located in Mississippi could participate in the program if the amended version of S.B. 2381 becomes law.

Senate Bill 2510 would increase the penalties for companies operating illegal sports betting programs in Mississippi. Eure amended the bill in the House Gaming Committee meeting on March 4 to also establish an online sports betting program in Section 4. The legislation lays out how online sports pools or online racebook platforms could obtain a gaming license from the state to legally allow Mississippians over the age of 21 to participate in online sports betting.

“Today we basically kept (online sports betting) alive and sent two more vehicles to the Senate. I’ve done everything the Senate’s asked me to do in my original bill (H.B. 1302) that they didn’t take up,” Eure told reporters on March 7.

Both bills are headed to the House floor for a vote from all representatives. If the House passes the bills, they go back to the Senate for the body to determine if it accepts the amendments the House made.

Voting and Elections

Mississippi Senate Elections Committee Chairman Sen. Jeremy England, R-Vancleave, is continuing his push for early voting in Mississippi despite legislative setbacks and repeated attacks from Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves.

The Republican senator used a strike-all amendment to replace the language in House Bill 177 with language from his own early-voting bill, Senate Bill 2654. His legislation would replace in-person absentee voting that begins 45 days before an election. Mississippians still could vote absentee via mail-in ballots.

House Bill 177 originally said Mississippians voting via in-person absentee would have to cast their ballots using optical-reading mark equipment instead of casting a sealed ballot into a sealed box. It also would have allowed poll workers and election commissioners to count absentee ballots on the Monday night before Election Day so they could more quickly announce absentee ballot vote totals on Tuesday night after voting precincts close. Election commissioners and poll workers would have had to count all ballots, including absentee and Election Day ballots, on election night under the House’s version of the legislation.

The House passed the House Elections Committee substitute of the legislation on Feb. 11.

“They passed our bill (S.B. 2654) out of their committee and did a strike-all and did the same thing and so we’re doing that with this one just to keep two vehicles alive and see what we can make happen,” England said in a committee meeting on March 4.

Mississippi House Elections Committee Chairman Rep. Noah Sanford, R-Collins, previously replaced S.B. 2654’s language with a strike-all amendment that included the language of the House’s version of H.B. 177. The committee passed it on Feb. 27 and sent it to the House floor for a vote from all representatives.

“What I imagine will happen after talking to my counterpart, Rep. Sanford, we do have some very similar language we’re working on, and I think this will maybe help get us to conference,” England said in a Senate Elections Committee meeting on March 4. In conference, House and Senate members work to compromise and reach agreements on differences between bills.

The Senate Elections Committee passed its amended version of the bill on March 4. H.B. 177 heads to the Senate floor for consideration from all senators.

Banning Hemp and CBD Products With Schedule I Classification

Senate Bill 2314 would classify all hemp and CBD as a Schedule I drug, which would remove all hemp products from Mississippi store shelves. This legislation affects hemp and CBD products that have less than 0.3% THC and do not include medical cannabis products.

Mississippi House Judiciary B Committee Chairman Rep. Kevin Horan, R-Grenada, expressed concern about making all hemp Schedule I and asked if the committee “was just moving” the legislation “through the process” during a Judiciary B Committee meeting on March 3. Business and Commerce Chairman Rep. Lee Yancey, R-Rankin, said he wanted to keep bills related to hemp alive so they could go through the negotiation process with the House and Senate.

“I really would prefer not to ban all the products because, I mean, some of the products to me are harmless,” Yancey told the Mississippi Free Press on March 4. “Now, the bill requires them to be tested, and I think they need to be tested so that people know what they’re taking, that it’s indeed what it says it is, and doesn’t contain lead or insecticides or pesticides or whatever. But it’s a problem that we’ve been trying to address for four or five years, and we just haven’t been able to get on the same page as the Senate.”

Mississippi House Speaker Jason White, R-West, double-referred S.B. 2314 to the House Business and Commerce Committee and the Judiciary A Committee. Both committees passed the bill on March 4 and sent it to the House floor for a vote from all representatives.

State Crime Law for  Mail, Check and Credit Card Fraud

Using, stealing, destroying and selling another person’s mail, checks or credit cards may soon be illegal under Senate Bill 2311, which establishes mail, check and credit card theft as crimes. Federal law already classifies mail, check and credit-card fraud as crimes.

The legislation says a person convicted of mail theft for the first time could serve up to five years in prison and pay up to $5,000 in fines. A person could go to prison for up to 10 years and pay up to $20,000 for the second violation under the bill.

It would be illegal for a person to steal an “unsigned check, signed check or sight order” or knowingly receive “the check or sight order with intent to use it, to sell it, or to transfer it to a person other than the person from whom the check or sight order was taken,” S.B. 2311 says.

A person could not defraud, obtain, possess, transfer or use a credit card that does not belong to them without the consent of the cardholder under the legislation.

House Judiciary B Chairman Rep. Kevin Horan, R-Grenada, said Florida and Missouri have similar laws when he introduced the bill to his committee on March 3.

“This has turned into a pretty significant problem throughout the state. The feds, unfortunately, are not enforcing their codes because they don’t have the financial or manpower to do it at this time,” he said at the Judiciary B Committee meeting on March 3.

The House Judiciary B Committee passed the legislation on March 3 and the House passed it by a 115-0 vote on March 4. Lawmakers are preparing the official version of the legislation for Senate President Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann to sign before sending it to Gov. Tate Reeves to sign it into law.

Failed: PERS Reform

Senate Bill 2439 would have created a fifth tier in the Public Employees’ Retirement System for state employees hired on or after March 1, 2026, while terminating the Supplemental Legislative Retirement Plan for state legislators and Senate presidents for those elected after March 1, 2026. The fifth tier would allow those employees to have a “defined contribution plan” as well as the other benefits PERS offers.

Terminating the SLRP for certain employees would mean current legislators and Senate President Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann would still receive “supplemental benefits” along with regular PERS benefits while legislators and Senate presidents elected after March 1, 2026, would not receive SLRP benefits.

SLRP members must pay “full contribution amounts for both PERS and SLRP in order to fund their regular and supplemental benefits,” the PERS SLRP handbook says. The SLRP retirement allowance is equal to 50% of the PERS retirement allowance.

“We need money and reform, that’s the position of the board. We brought a tier five to the Legislature last year; it was a different approach. … But we also ask for a guaranteed stream of revenue, surplus funds. It’s really going to take both things to right the course for PERS. We need an infusion of cash and pension reform,” PERS Board of Trustees’ Council and Policy Adviser Davatta Lee told House State Affairs Committee members on March 4.

Employees hired between July 1, 1990, and Feb. 28, 2026, could have had a chance to participate in an optional retirement program under PERS through Senate Bill 2449. The state would cap employer contributions at 9% and terminate contributions for employees hired on or after March 1, 2026, under the legislation.

House State Affairs Committee Vice Chairman Rep. Robert Johnson, D-Natchez, said professors from the University of Mississippi and Mississippi State University called him with concerns about S.B. 2449. He voted against the bill.

“If the numbers only save the retirement system $20 million, why would we forgo the opportunity to bring professors—we are already one of the lowest salaries at (institutions of higher learning) in the Southeast—why would we do something to discourage bringing people in?” he asked House State Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Hank Zuber, R-Ocean Springs.

“Mr. Vice Chairman, that is something we can consider. This is a working project. As you can see, it’s been double referred and I’m sure that concern will continue to be addressed as the process moves forward,” Zuber replied. House Speaker Jason White, R-West, double-referred the bills to the House State Affairs Committee and the House Accountability, Efficiency and Transparency Committee. 

House State Affairs Committee Chairman Zuber allowed both bills to pass out of his committee on March 4, although the voice votes seemed to lean toward a resounding “no.” He denied requests for roll-call votes. The bills died in the AET Committee on the March 4 deadline after committee Chairman Rep. Kevin Ford, R-Vicksburg, did not bring them up for a vote.

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