Former governor joins healthcare professionals to launch testing facility on new medical marijuana program for Mississippi.
Former Mississippi Governor Ronnie Musgrove is joining a hospital executive team to form Magnolia Tech Labs. This new business will be a state-of-the-art testing facility service for the state’s new medical marijuana industry.
As of yesterday, the Mississippi Department of Health has opened applications for growers, dispensaries and testing facilities to operate in the medical marijuana business. These requests must be filed to receive certification.
Quentin Whitewell and Dr. Kenneth Williams and Nashville partner Bappa Mukherji have developed a comprehensive healthcare system in underserved areas of the Northern Delta. Over the years, they developed a friendship with Governor Musgrove, leading to their latest business venture.
“Governor Musgrove’s roots are where we plant our health flag, and his experience has brought a common bond. We shared a passion for helping communities that were losing their hospitals,” said Whitwell. “Musgrove was involved in the trade association that helped pass the initiative. No one was really talking about product safety testing back then, and we knew it would be a much-needed part of public trust in the industry.”
Musgrove has political health experience after serving as chair of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Rural Health Committee. He also served as a Visiting Fellow for Health Policy at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University.
“Having experience in state government, I knew that testing needed to be a close public-private partnership that served the public and the industry. When we started talking to the Mississippi Department of Health about what tests should be required, they fully understood why this was so important to bringing credibility to the industry,” Musgrove said.
Whitwell is also a former member of the Jackson City Council and current president and CEO of Progressive Health Systems, Inc., a non-profit hospital organization.
“Voters in Mississippi and the Legislature passed this law on the assumption that the
industry would produce a safe and effective product,” said co-founder Whitwell. “O
people who worked so hard to make this industry a reality in Mississippi – and the
Patients who depend on this product – deserve to be confident that the product is safe from pesticides, heavy metals and other pollutants. They also hope that every time they use this product, it will do what their doctors say it will.”
Williams serves as an internal medicine physician in Holly Springs. He also owns Alliance Health Systems in Holly Springs, a purchase made after the hospital was in danger of closing in 1999.
“This is very personal to me,” added Governor Musgrove. “I had several conversations with my late wife, Melody, before she passed away last year from leukemia. She knew that cannabis would have helped her with the pain of her illness and the side effects of her cancer treatment. I want to get involved in this industry and help it grow so that people in our state don’t have to suffer like she did.”
“The Hippocratic Oath clearly states, ‘first do no harm,’” said Dr. Williams. “For doctors
prescribe cannabis comfortably and confidently to their patients, they must be solid in the knowledge that the product they are prescribing is healthy, safe and effective. Quality testing will help bring that confidence not only to physicians in our state, but also to their patients.”
