[PRESS RELEASE] – FLOWOOD, Miss., Aug. 6, 2026 – Steep Hill Mississippi, the state's first and largest cannabis testing lab, announced that it will combine with Alchemy Analytics under a newly formed Mississippi holding company, Southern Precision Analytics LLC, in a strategic move designed to ensure long-term financial viability and preserve Mississippi's required cannabis testing infrastructure.
While the companies will consolidate administrative and back-office functions, each laboratory will maintain its own facility, team, instruments, methodologies and compliance standards. This structure ensures uninterrupted testing services for cultivators, processors and patients statewide. Steep Hill Mississippi CEO Allen Whitt will serve as CEO of the combined organization.
"This restructuring is about protecting the integrity and continuity of Mississippi's medical cannabis program," Whitt said. "By joining administrative and back-office functions, we can reduce costly overhead and continue to focus on accurate, precise testing and customer service. This is the only practical path forward to ensure both labs remain financially feasible and that the cannabis industry in Mississippi continues operating without disruption. Without this restructuring, neither lab would have the operational scale necessary to remain viable in this market.”
Mississippi’s medical cannabis program originally projected approximately 100,000 patient cardholders by year three. However, the state currently has 69,476 active patient cardholders, significantly below initial forecasts. As a result, testing volumes have fallen well short of projections when the market launched.
At the outset of the program, seven testing facilities were announced or later licensed. Some never opened, and only two remain: Steep Hill Mississippi and Alchemy Analytics. Each lab carries substantial fixed costs for instrumentation, ISO 17025 accreditation maintenance, regulatory compliance and skilled analyst staffing. These costs have proven structurally challenging to support at current market volumes.
"Our clients will keep the lab, the people and the turnaround times they know. Combining back-office operations lets us keep delivering accurate, objective testing across the state," Alchemy Analytics CEO Hatem Mourad, M.D., said.
Customers will continue to have the ability to choose the location of their preference for testing services. There will be no required changes to client relationships, submission processes or reporting structures. Both laboratories maintain full compliance with Mississippi State Department of Health requirements and ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation.
