Medical Marijuana Op-Ed by 3MA Executive Director, Ken Newburger

“The medical marijuana bill finally passed!” and “This is so exciting for Mississippi!” was every text message, email, and phone call I received for about a week after Governor Tate Reeves signed the bill into law. But after a few days, people started to wonder: what exactly passed in the bill?

While 445 pages of legal code isn’t the most fun to read, I’ll summarize the bill succinctly in this article, then answer, “what’s next?”

First, if you are a patient with one of the 28 enumerate debilitating medical conditions (easily found on the Mississippi Department of Health’s marijuana page), then once cannabis is fully grown and tested in the state, you can purchase it with a medical marijuana card. There are limitations on how much product a person can have. With a card, a patient can buy six units of 3.5 grams per week and no more than twenty-four units of 3.5 grams per month. This math equates to roughly 3 ounces of marijuana per month.

Second, the bill allows for physicians, certified nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and optometrists to certify patients with debilitating conditions. Those practitioners will be required to take 8 hours of continuing medical education credits before starting to issue patient certifications. For persons between the age of 18 and 25, they will need certifications from two practitioners, one of whom is a physician or a doctor of osteopathic medicine. Also, for minors, certifications can only be written by physicians or doctors of osteopathic medicine and with consent from a parent or guardian. 

Third, the Mississippi Medical Cannabis Act is very prescriptive of what kinds of licenses will be available for businesses. Seven license types will be available: cultivation, processing, dispensary, transportation, disposal, testing, and research. Businesses can have no more than 1 cultivation, 1 processing, and 5 dispensaries. The state will NOT put a limit on the number of licenses it issues. There are 2 sub-tiers of “micro cultivator” and “micro processor” licenses carved out for smaller, completely Mississippi-owned businesses. 

Fourth, smokable, tincture, edible, topical, and all other forms of products will be available for purchase by patients with cards. Unlike other medical marijuana programs, Mississippi will have THC potency caps. In raw flower—the buds harvested from the plant—and trimmed plant material, THC can be no more than 30%. In extracted materials, tinctures, vape cartridges, edibles, etc. THC can be no more than 60%. All products, from seed to sale, must be grown, manufactured, tested, and tracked in the state of Mississippi—no products can come from other states. 

So now what? The timeline starts concrete, then becomes hazy. By June 2nd, the Department of Health will work to create rules and regulations that govern all license types, except dispensaries. These regulations will include things like packaging requirements, security requirements, and applicant requirements. The Department of Revenue will be putting forth similar requirements for dispensaries by July 2nd. Both departments have to issue their respective licenses after 30 days of receiving an application. Further, municipalities and counties have until May 3rd to announce and vote should they want to opt out. After May 3rd, any municipality that has not opted out is opted in by default. 

Finally, once seeds go into the ground in early July, it will take about 4-6 months for the marijuana to be fully grown, dried, processed, and tested. Most businesses I speak with anticipate that by December, patients will be able to purchase medical marijuana. 

This is a lot of dense information, but it all boils down to this: Mississippi has a medical marijuana program with clear guidelines for patients, doctors, and businesses. For those patients who have been asking for relief, they will begin to see businesses open up across the state and prepare high quality and safe products for everyday use ideally by the end of this year.