JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – The medical marijuana law is in place and the state’s started issuing licenses. But we wanted to find out the status of some of the businesses preparing the products.
We’ve talked about medical marijuana in a lot of hypotheticals over the course of the last few years here in Mississippi. But now we’re able to see it growing. We took a visit to Southern Sky Brands in Canton.
They have precision irrigation, airflow, and some classical music for good measure. We got an inside look at the to grow pods.
“Removing some of these big fan leaves to allow better light penetration through there,” explained Brent Vanzile, Southern Sky Brand Director of Cultivation.
“We’re able now and through the ability to have these temporary growth facilities so go ahead and issue those growing pains now to go ahead and absorb that to have a product ready to go in our facility when it’s commissioned to go,” added Justin Mahfouz, Southern Sky Brands Co-Founder. “These grow pods do nothing but speed up the availability of this medicine for these patients.”
Across the parking lot is the permanent facility where the plants will eventually be housed. Once the construction is complete, plants will fill these “flower rooms” lining this hallway.
“Those flower rooms that you saw will hold the capacity of 25 of one of these individual grow pods,” said Mahfouz.
We checked in with the Mississippi Medical Marijuana Association for a status update on businesses statewide.
“The Department of Revenue and Health started issuing licenses in July,” noted Mississippi Medical Marijuana Association Executive Director Ken Newburger. “And a lot of those have been given there are still quite a few companies across the state who are more in the growth space that is waiting to hear back on their applications. We’ve had well over 100 dispensaries across the state that are licensed. So we’re looking at later this year, early next year, really a budding market. Pun intended.”
Meanwhile, all eyes are on step one…cultivation.
“There’s still early in the flowering cycle,” said Vanzile as he showed us a plant. “So, they haven’t totally developed here. But all of the medicine is in the trichrome head. And as well as the terpenes and all of the full range of cannabinoids. So those will grow. Sometimes they’ll grow along it along the stem a little bit and they’ll be on the sugar leaves, but the majority of it forms on the bud itself.”
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