Mississippi on Wednesday became the 39th state in the country and third in the Deep South to legalize medical marijuana after Republican Gov. Tate Reeves signed an MMJ bill into law.
The law is effective immediately, and the market could launch before year-end.
“There is no doubt that there are individuals in our state who could do significantly better if they had access to medically prescribed doses of cannabis,” Reeves wrote as part of a statement posted on Twitter.
But Reeves made it clear that he opposes a recreational marijuana program.
The measure, Senate Bill 2095, calls for license applications to be accepted within 120 days, or 150 days in the case of dispensaries.
But the bill, passed by lawmakers last week, is more restrictive than what voters approved at the ballot box in 2020.
The Mississippi Supreme Court voided that measure on a technicality.
Under the MMJ law signed by Reeves, there’s a potency cap of 30% THC for flower and 60% for concentrates, oils and tinctures.
There’s no limit on the number of licenses, but municipalities could choose to opt out.
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Alabama and Louisiana are the other two states in the Deep South that have legalized medical cannabis.
MJBizDaily has its own definitions of what constitutes a medical cannabis state, and by that definition, Mississippi becomes the 39th to legalize such a program.
