In case you were wondering, medical marijuana is approved for those suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD) under Mississippi’s new medical marijuana program.

With America holding its breath in agonizing anticipation of the results of the too-close-to-call Presidential election, the citizen-backed medical marijuana initiative (Initiative 65) is well on its way to approval with a margin so large that any votes left to be counted will have little bearing on the outcome.

In a state where conservative orthodoxy again flexed its muscles — President Trump held a 25-point lead over Democrat Joe Biden while incumbent Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith rolled to an 18-point win over Democrat Mike Espy — the three ballot initiatives tilted heavily toward progressive ideas.

By an almost 4-to-1 margin, Mississippi adopted a new flag to replace the Jim Crow-era flag that featured Confederate imagery in its canton. That may not sound particularly progressive until you reflect that 19 years ago Mississippians voted by a 2-to-1 margin to retain the old flag.

Another initiative to change how the election of statewide elections are determined when no candidate receives a majority of the votes was approved by 78 percent of the voters. Under the old method, an enduring vestige of the 1890 Jim Crow state constitution, the House of Representatives determined the winner in that circumstance. With Blacks well on the way to being disenfranchised at the time, this method ensured no Black candidates could win statewide office since an all-white House of Representative would determine the outcome.

As a result of Tuesday’s vote, those elections will now be determined by runoff elections.

The final of the ballot initiatives was the medical marijuana question.

Broadly speaking, medical marijuana has ceased to be controversial. Mississippi joins 33 other states and the District of Columbia in adopting a medical marijuana program.

Yet opponents of medical marijuana tried to cast the issue in a conservative vs. liberal light, deliberately conflating medical marijuana — which will be available only through a medical doctor’s prescription — with recreational marijuana.

Opponents called medical marijuana dispensaries “pot shops” and Gov. Tate Reeves referred to supporters of medical marijuana as “stoners.”

The efforts didn’t stop there. After more than 200,000 Mississippians signed a petition to put medical marijuana on the ballot, the Legislature placed a competing initiative on the ballot, essentially a “ghost bill” that offered few details about how its medical marijuana program would operate or when — if ever — it would be implemented. It was a nakedly transparent effort to confuse voters and dilute support for a medical marijuana program of any kind.

Voters were neither fooled nor converted by any of those tactics, approving Initiative 65 by a 3-to-1 margin. It is a stunning rebuke of the Legislature and its tactics.

By the end of the night Tuesday, two things should be clear:

First, the Republican brand in the state remains virtually unassailable, as the presidential and senatorial results demonstrate.

Second, Mississippians can be surprisingly progressive, as the passage of the ballot initiatives prove.

The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.