After Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed a bill to legalize medical cannabis in the state in February, agencies like the Department of Health and the Department of Revenue began writing regulations for the marketplace that will materialize later this year. Not every rule is set in stone just yet, but already prospective business owners have a sense of what’s needed to get in on the action. 

License applications may be submitted to the DOH in early June (for cultivation, processing, testing, research, disposal and transportation operations) and to the DOR in early July (for dispensary operations). 

Those dates are coming soon: But industry observers caution against haste. There will be time aplenty to submit paperwork. The important thing is what’s contained within that paperwork. Clare Millette, partner at Cosmich Simmons & Brown PLLC, says that it’s vital to think through the full business plan—long-term. 

“[Applicants] need to know there's so much information, and there are so many different ways that you can participate in this industry,” she says. “You need to have a clear vision for where you see yourself entering this industry.”

Mississippi is the 37th state to legalize a commercial medical cannabis market without low-THC restrictions, and this timing confers some regulatory advantages (even as the perceived delay has disadvantaged the state’s patients in need). Where other states have walked relatively blindly into the regulation of a new market like medical cannabis, Mississippi agency representatives have had a chance to learn from past successes and mistakes elsewhere in the U.S. 

For instance, the state will offer two tiers of “micro” cannabis cultivation licenses (2,000 square feet of canopy or less), and the state will not cap the number of business licenses it will issue.

See below for the full legislative overview of cannabis business license types and fees in Mississippi.

To convey the depth of information in the law to the people who need it most, the Mississippi Cannabis Trade Association will host a license application workshop later this month in Jackson. Representatives from Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP and Cosmich Simmons & Brown PLLC (including Millette) will be on hand to explain what’s needed in this first critical stage of cannabis business development. 

READ MORE: Jackson Native Launches Mississippi’s First Woman-Owned Medical Cannabis Company 

Millette points to five key subject areas with which prospective business owners will want to familiarize themselves:

1. Know your state
2. Know your area
3. Know your agency
4. Know what’s required
5. Know what’s prohibited

With regard to the state, it’s important for prospective applicants to know the overarching set of rules that will govern this new industry. Some of those more specific rules from the DOH and the DOR are not yet published (although they’re expected soon), but already the Mississippi Medical Cannabis Act provides guidance.

Then, locally, there are considerations. Mississippi counties and municipalities had an opportunity to opt out of hosting cannabis businesses. All told, 10 counties and 17 municipalities did so. (Millette notes that local citizens may submit petitions to overturn that decision.) Beyond the opt-outs, even those cities that may allow medical cannabis businesses could end up amending zoning laws to further restrict where cannabis businesses are permitted. Right now, according to the state law (again, know your state), dispensaries may not be located 1,500 feet from one another. Cannabis businesses of any kind may not be located within 1,000 of churches, schools or daycare centers.

As far as agency oversight: It’s vital to know who’s governing whom. The DOH will regulate cultivators, processors, testing labs, researchers, disposal companies and transportation companies; the DOR will regulate dispensaries.

Until further regulations are published by those agencies, the questions of “what’s required” and “what’s prohibited” aren’t yet finalized. But, either way, Millette suggests companies prepare themselves for the level of transparency needed in the medical cannabis business licensing process.

Business owners will want to provide not only the simple facts of the matter like their names and addresses (which means real estate must be locked down well ahead of time), but also more in-depth material, like standard operating procedures, floor plans, funding models and investor profiles. Who’s funding this business? How will this business function? What’s the plan here? This is part state-mandated background check, part strategic narrative (and note that literal background checks are a part of this process, too, for anyone holding an ownership stake in the business).

The important thing is for business owners to clearly tell their story to the state. The application is, on some level, an in-depth first impression.

“This may be something [applicants] will learn, but anticipating the costs [is important],” Millette says. “This will be part of the education of the licensing workshop, but the costs are a lot more than just your application fee and your licensing fee. You may have the capital for those, but you have to present in your operating procedures how this is really going to work. Getting that license is one thing, but the law requires compliance with a lot of things to keep that application renewed and to keep that license viable.”

The state will have 30 days to approve or reject a medical cannabis business license application, so expect the market to begin taking shape later this summer.

Section 18 - LICENSING - Mississippi Medical Cannabis Act by sandydocs on Scribd

New Mexico state regulators are calling the first month of commercial adult-use cannabis sales a success on the heels of more than $22.1 million recorded by licensed retailers.

That figure is in addition to $17.3 million in medical cannabis sales, bringing the combined total to nearly $39.5 million, according to the state’s Cannabis Control Division (CCD).

CCD officials commended the first-month benchmark as an indication of a strong market and supply that have made the new industry a boon to New Mexico’s economy.

“New Mexicans showed up on April 1 ready to support local businesses selling high-quality New Mexico products,” CCD Director Kristen Thomson said. “And they’re still coming. Thanks to hard work by the dedicated people working in the industry, supply easily met consumer and patient demand. New Mexicans have a lot to be proud of in the launch of this new industry, which is already adding value to the state’s diverse economy.”

The state’s most populous city of more than 560,000 residents, Albuquerque recorded the highest numbers with $8 million in adult-use cannabis sales and nearly $6.9 million in medical cannabis sales, or roughly 38% of the state’s overall sales figures for April.

Meanwhile, Las Cruces, with roughly 110,000 residents, recorded nearly $2.1 million in adult-use and $1.6 million in medical sales for the month. Santa Fe (87,500 residents) recorded more than $1.8 million in adult-use and $1.6 million in medical sales.

In addition, communities near the Texas border also posted high sales numbers, with Hobbs ($1.3 million in adult-use and $422,000 in medical) and Sunland Park ($1.2 million in adult-use and $225,000 in medical) rounding out the top five cities by sales, according to the CCD.

Overall, adult-use cannabis accounted for 56.1% of sales for April.

Retail business was boosted by five Fridays and five Saturdays for the month, as well as spikes associated with the state’s April 1 launch, which included roughly $2.7 million in combined sales, and the April 20 holiday, when dispensaries recorded $2.2 million in combined sales.

Duke Rodriguez, president and CEO of Ultra Health, the largest cannabis company in New Mexico with 38 dispensaries serving both medical and adult-use customers in the state, pointed out those factors and more.

“Keep in mind, we were doing $20 million a month on medical in 2021,” he told Cannabis Business Times. “So, we’re seeing a deterioration on medical. Now, whether it’s migrating over to adult, we can’t say yet. But the reality is that we are seeing a deterioration on the medical sales compared to last year, and the adult sales did not hit our target.”

Rodriguez said the retail target in New Mexico should, in part, be based on comparisons to Montana, which launched its adult-use retail program on Jan. 1, 2022. During that inaugural month, Montana’s licensed retailers sold more than $14.1 million in adult-use cannabis and $10.1 million in medical cannabis (nearly $24.3 million combined), according to the state’s Department of Revenue.

Montana’s population of 1.07 million is roughly 51% of New Mexico’s population of 2.1 million, but its overall sales for its first month represented 61.5% of New Mexico’s.

In addition to proximity of their adult-use launch dates, Montana and New Mexico are similar in certain aspects, Rodriguez said.

“Montana’s the fourth largest landmass. [New Mexico is the] fifth largest landmass,” he said. “We’re both highly rural populations. But New Mexico has a huge advantage over Montana: No. 1, we are twice their population. No. 2, we border against the second most populous state in the country—Texas.”

While Rodriguez acknowledged that not all months are the same, he said fears have been raised based on those comparisons. With Montana recording $25.4 million in combined adult-use and medical sales in April, he said he believes New Mexico’s numbers should have been twice that.

Although only a handful of days have been logged in the May sales books, Rodriguez said Ultra Health’s retail operations have experienced very little change from April, aside from the absence of the April 1 launch and 4/20 surge.

Overall, New Mexico retailers averaged a combined $1.3 million per day in adult-use and medical sales throughout April.

The first tax payments from adult-use cannabis sales are due on May 25, and data on state revenue from those sales will be available after that date, according to CCD.

Moving forward, the division will release sales numbers on a monthly basis.

Multistate operator MariMed recently locked down two new acquisitions: Kind Therapeutics, in Maryland, and Green Growth, in Illinois.

The company, which already had a footprint in Maryland through other licensed business acquisitions, had been eyeing Kind Therapeutics for the past few years. MariMed owned Kind’s cultivation and production facility in Hagerstown, as well as a 6,000-sq.-ft. building in Anne Arundel County that was being developed as a Kind Therapeutics dispensary location. Kind had been leasing those facilities from MariMed.

The intention now is to expand those Kind operations and layer them into MariMed’s existing Maryland infrastructure. For instance, at the cultivation site, MariMed plans to add another 40,000 square feet of canopy, as well as a GMP kitchen for cannabis edibles.

Some 630 miles to the west, the newly closed Green Growth acquisition will allow MariMed to vertically integrate its cannabis operations in Illinois. Green Growth held cultivation, manufacturing and distribution licenses; MariMed had only claimed a retail license in that state until this point.

"In this new licensed manufacturing facility, we will produce cannabis flowers and products that will be sold in our four Thrive retail dispensaries as well as into the robust Illinois wholesale marketplace,” CEO Bob Fireman said in a public statement. “Being vertically integrated in Illinois will improve our margins in our retail stores and create new wholesale revenue. We are exploring adding an additional six dispensaries in the state as Illinois allows up to 10 for a single owner."

MariMed is now building out a cultivation and processing facility (with 14,000 square feet of canopy space) in Mt. Vernon, Ill., with operations anticipated to begin at the end of this year.

"Being vertical in Illinois will improve our gross margins at our retail stores and allow us to wholesale our branded products to other dispensaries," CFO Jon Levine said in a public statement.