Medical Marijuana Efforts Light Up in Mississippi as Lawmakers Reach New Deal

Mississippi legislators have asked Governor Tate Reeves to call a special legislative session devoted, in part, to setting up a medical marijuana program. Last week, lawmakers reached an agreement on proposed legislation to facilitate access to medical marijuana.

Last year, Mississippi voters turned out in favor of Initiative 65, which established a regulated system of state-licensed dispensaries to dispense cannabis-related products to patients with a physician’s authorization. Prior to the vote on Initiative 65, officials from the city of Madison challenged the ballot measure with a lawsuit. They argued that the legislature failed to properly update regulations for petitioners. The Mississippi Supreme Court then decided 6 to 3 to nullify the vote in favor of Initiative 65.

Here are the highlights of the new proposed bill, which covers most of the requirements in Initiative 65, as well as other conditions:

• Smoking cannabis is allowed. There has been debate in many states about whether a medical marijuana program should include smoking. The proposed bill permits smoking cannabis for its medical marijuana program. Louisiana recently approved a similar measure.
• Residency preference. Licenses will be stratified among cultivators based on size from “micro cultivators” to large cultivators, based on square footage of canopy space. Smaller cultivators must include 100% Mississippi resident participation. Larger cultivators would initially have to have 35% Mississippi resident ownership, but that requirement would be repealed after one year. The program intends to have similar size groupings for processors (based on how many pounds of product a processor produces).
• No outdoor or home growing. Industry best practices developed by other states with medical marijuana programs show that the cultivation and safety of medical marijuana is easier with indoor growing facilities.
• Warning label for potency. There will be limits on THC potency, as follows: 30% on flower and 60% on concentrates and infused products. As it stands now, any product above a 30% THC threshold must have a warning label.
• Health care provider certification. The proposed bill expands the types of providers that can certify a patient’s use of medical cannabis to include physicians, nurse practitioners, physicians’ assistants and optometrists. Under Initiative 65, certification authority was limited to physicians.

The proposed bill is subject to more revisions as it works its way through the special session. There is no date yet for the special session, as lawmakers are still in discussions regarding medical marijuana program appropriations. Please contact Beau Haynes, Isabel Bonilla-Mathe or any member of Phelps’ Health Care team if you have questions, and stay tuned to Phelps’ client alerts for future medical marijuana-related news in Mississippi.