Mississippi’s medical marijuana program is still in the planning stages. Even so, cannabis businesses are already sprouting up across the state.”I want to be the Chick-fil-A of cannabis,” said Steve Merritt, with Southern Sky Brands.Merritt has helped build cannabis-growing facilities all over the country. He moved to Mississippi to build one in Madison County.”We are beginning to realize this plant touches a lot of receptors all over our body. It is really tremendous medicine,” Merritt said.A vast cement slab will become Southern Sky Brands. The facility is being built from the ground up near the Nissan plant in Canton. Justin Mahfouz is one of the founders of the company.”The core group of our guys are from Mississippi and we felt like this was a great opportunity to bring homegrown products to hometown patients,” Mahfouz said. “We are all Mississippi guys, kind of a hometown, home state feel.”It’s been a stressful year. Mahfouz and his partners were part of the gold rush of developers hoping to open medical marijuana facilities when voters approved the medical marijuana initiative in November 2020. But in May 2021, the Mississippi Supreme Court struck the initiative down because of flawed language in the state constitution’s ballot initiative process. That left Mahfouz and others in limbo.”We’ve been sitting on the sidelines, and at some point, it becomes a significant business risk,” Mahfouz said.Gov. Tate Reeves signed the medical marijuana law this month after it was passed by the legislature. Work on Southern Sky can resume, but inflation has taken a toll.”We have seen a significant increase in our building materials. Things that used to cost a million dollars, now cost $4 million, and (we) can’t get it for 18 months,” Mahfouz said. “Waiting on the sideline, we are experiencing a $15 million increase in the build of our facility. No design change, just the materials are more expensive this year than they were last year.”In the next few months, Mahfouz hopes he’ll finally see a building at the site. It will look much like a facility Merritt recently visited with eight growing rooms inside. “The way we grow indoor marijuana is we will grow, and every week we will have another crop, cure it, dry out, and what we will do is process it,” Merritt said.The distribution facility will employ as many as 125 people – 200 people companywide. Some specially skilled, others will be hired with no experience. Merritt said they hope to be open for business in November.”We know we are going to spend an exorbitant amount of money training people,” Merritt said. “There are a lot of skills involved. You can’t hire those. It’s not around. They’ve already been snatched up by other states.”Merritt said he’s excited to offer tours of the facility, in hopes of changing the minds of some people who aren’t on board with medical marijuana yet.”I don’t want to just sell them weed. I want to show them how the medicine can change their life,” Merritt said.The company plans to have five dispensaries around the state. They’ll also sell their product in other dispensaries.
Mississippi’s medical marijuana program is still in the planning stages. Even so, cannabis businesses are already sprouting up across the state.
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“I want to be the Chick-fil-A of cannabis,” said Steve Merritt, with Southern Sky Brands.
Merritt has helped build cannabis-growing facilities all over the country. He moved to Mississippi to build one in Madison County.
“We are beginning to realize this plant touches a lot of receptors all over our body. It is really tremendous medicine,” Merritt said.
A vast cement slab will become Southern Sky Brands. The facility is being built from the ground up near the Nissan plant in Canton. Justin Mahfouz is one of the founders of the company.
“The core group of our guys are from Mississippi and we felt like this was a great opportunity to bring homegrown products to hometown patients,” Mahfouz said. “We are all Mississippi guys, kind of a hometown, home state feel.”
It’s been a stressful year. Mahfouz and his partners were part of the gold rush of developers hoping to open medical marijuana facilities when voters approved the medical marijuana initiative in November 2020. But in May 2021, the Mississippi Supreme Court struck the initiative down because of flawed language in the state constitution’s ballot initiative process. That left Mahfouz and others in limbo.
“We’ve been sitting on the sidelines, and at some point, it becomes a significant business risk,” Mahfouz said.
Gov. Tate Reeves signed the medical marijuana law this month after it was passed by the legislature. Work on Southern Sky can resume, but inflation has taken a toll.
“We have seen a significant increase in our building materials. Things that used to cost a million dollars, now cost $4 million, and (we) can’t get it for 18 months,” Mahfouz said. “Waiting on the sideline, we are experiencing a $15 million increase in the build of our facility. No design change, just the materials are more expensive this year than they were last year.”
In the next few months, Mahfouz hopes he’ll finally see a building at the site. It will look much like a facility Merritt recently visited with eight growing rooms inside.
“The way we grow indoor marijuana is we will grow, and every week we will have another crop, cure it, dry out, and what we will do is process it,” Merritt said.
The distribution facility will employ as many as 125 people – 200 people companywide. Some specially skilled, others will be hired with no experience. Merritt said they hope to be open for business in November.
“We know we are going to spend an exorbitant amount of money training people,” Merritt said. “There are a lot of skills involved. You can’t hire those. It’s not around. They’ve already been snatched up by other states.”
Merritt said he’s excited to offer tours of the facility, in hopes of changing the minds of some people who aren’t on board with medical marijuana yet.
“I don’t want to just sell them weed. I want to show them how the medicine can change their life,” Merritt said.
The company plans to have five dispensaries around the state. They’ll also sell their product in other dispensaries.
