As the 2016 legislative session winds down, Senate members considered 20 bills Wednesday, mostly determining whether to concur with amended legislation from the House. The Senate convened at 10 a.m. and adjourned at 11:30 a.m.

Among the bills:

• Senators declined to concur with a bill that would shield names of employees, family members and pharmacies providing execution drugs from being released to the public.

• Members also declined to concur with a bill that would prohibit “sanctuary cities,” or cities which grant certain levels of legal immunity to undocumented immigrants.

• The Senate also discussed a bill that would designate synthetic cannabinoids, commonly known as “spice,” as a Schedule I drug, which is considered to have the highest potential for abuse and a drug for which medical personnel have little known treatment.

All three of the bills were authored in the Senate and sent to the House, which then amended them. On Wednesday, since the Senate did not concur with the House amendments, the bills will go to conference for further discussion between members of both houses.

A bill that would continue exempting sales tax on agricultural products made in the state of Mississippi and sold from the place of first production was passed by the senate and now goes to the governor for signature.


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Adam Ganucheau, as Mississippi Today's editor-in-chief, oversees the newsroom and works with the editorial team to fulfill our mission of producing high-quality journalism in the public interest. Adam has covered politics and state government for Mississippi Today since February 2016. A native of Hazlehurst, Adam has worked as a staff reporter for AL.com, The Birmingham News and The Clarion-Ledger and his work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post and Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Adam earned his bachelor’s in journalism from the University of Mississippi.