JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – There are a lot of puzzle pieces that need to fit together for the medical marijuana industry to be fully up and running and most of those are now in place.
WLBT is told 900 Mississippians have already applied and been certified for their medical marijuana cards. But there is a message that some of them are getting that has them wondering if they’ve done something wrong.
“So the patient will actually get an approval notice from the Department of Health,” described Angie Calhoun, founder, and CEO of the Mississippi Cannabis Patients Alliance. “And then they will get a second email that says your card is deactivated.”
Angie Calhoun with the Mississippi Cannabis Patients Alliance says not to panic.
“As soon as the Department of Revenue opens those dispensary doors, the Department of Health, they stay in close contact with each other, they will activate your patient card,” added Calhoun.
Timeline wise….
“We’re hearing that the testing facilities should be ready and operable come the middle of December,” noted Calhoun. “And so that means that hopefully, the Mississippi Department of Revenue will open the dispensary doors come the first of the year.”
Southern Sky Brands has harvested its first crop. And they’re already on to other crops that will be moved from the grow pods to the flower room in the facility next week. We asked what formulas they plan to start with when products are made.
“We’re very medically oriented, we want to make sure that we are not introducing a whole bunch of products and not do any of them well,” said Steve Merritt, Southern Sky Brands Chief Operations Officer. “We’ll probably start out with four or five, we’ll probably just do the pre-rolls and which is a joint that you can smoke, we’ll have vape pens, we’ll do gummies and chocolate bars and a few basic things. And then the goal is to add one or two products every three to four months once we get those things perfected.”
Kelly’s Green planted later to try and line up the harvest with testing availability and their facility is taking shape.
“We are very fortunate to be standing here today, seeing these products being grown being made right here in Mississippi, and we are so excited about the future,” explained Kelly’s Green Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder Chad King. “We have over 52 strains. But right now, we have narrowed it down to certain individual strains that we’re growing right now, of course, we will expand that we have seven strains that we’re growing right now.”
All the groups are encouraging patients not to delay in applying for their cards so that there isn’t a bottleneck of applications once dispensaries open. If you need more details on how to complete the application, the Mississippi Cannabis Patients Alliance has a step by step guide HERE.
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