The Mississippi Board of Health has approved a timeline for the state to create regulations for the state’s new medical marijuana program that is now in the state’s constitution. Regulations will be finalized by July first, and the deadline for the state to begin offering licenses for growing and purchasing medical marijuana is August 15th. But Board of Health member Jim Perry says Mississippians who get their medical marijuana license on the first day it becomes available should not be expecting to immediately go into a dispensary to purchase marijuana. “As I envision this, I just don’t know how that’s possible. If you get the license at the earliest moment of August 15th to grow, you’re actually going to have to start the growing process, and for it to be tested, and it could be months after August 15th before there’s actually product at a treatment center for a cardholder to purchase,” says Perry.
Health officials say the state will try to get some licenses to grow medical marijuana issued prior to the August 15th deadline, and it could take growers six weeks to finish growing a viable product.
The Department of Health is working on a website that will help explain how the program will operate, and licenses are not available currently. Board of Health member Ed Langton says Mississippians should avoid any false claims that they can get their medical marijuana license early. “There’s been some fraud about how ‘We can get you in line and get you a card before anybody else.’ That’s extraordinarily bad to happen to our citizens,” says Langton. “The citizens should not be looking at any of that until they go to the health department for the source documents that will tell them what accurate facts are, and not innuendo.”
An advisory board will be established this month that will oversee the medical marijuana program to address a broad variety of issues.
