{"id":56057,"date":"2022-07-21T12:27:07","date_gmt":"2022-07-21T20:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2022\/07\/21\/mississippi-businesses-rush-to-compete-for-medical-marijuana-licenses\/"},"modified":"2022-07-21T20:45:53","modified_gmt":"2022-07-22T04:45:53","slug":"mississippi-businesses-rush-to-compete-for-medical-marijuana-licenses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2022\/07\/21\/mississippi-businesses-rush-to-compete-for-medical-marijuana-licenses\/","title":{"rendered":"Mississippi Businesses Rush To Compete For Medical Marijuana Licenses"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

\u201cThe dispensary applications have created a race of who could apply faster to mark their territory.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

By Sara DiNatale, Mississippi Today<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mississippi\u2019s hopeful medical marijuana dispensary owners are in turf wars across the state as they rush to get in applications to lay their stake in the new industry.<\/p>\n

The Mississippi Department of Revenue has already received 111 applications for dispensaries, which it started accepting on July 1. That\u2019s more than in any other business category and has led to $4.4 million in collected application fees.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe dispensary applications have created a race of who could apply faster to mark their territory,\u201d said Ken Newburger, the director of Mississippi Medical Marijuana Association. \u201cWhen you start drawing circles around Mississippi\u20141,000 feet away from churches, 1,500 feet away from every other dispensary\u2014there\u2019s not a lot of land left.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newburger was referring to the radius laws that prevent dispensaries from opening shops too close to schools, churches and competing stores.<\/p>\n

So far, 27 businesses\u2014including cultivators, processors, transporters and waste management\u2014have applied for licenses with the Mississippi Department of Health, which is handling those businesses.<\/p>\n

The health department has issued nine business-related licenses, giving a few companies clearance to begin growing marijuana crops.<\/p>\n

Mockingbird Cannabis, one of the state\u2019s early industry leaders, was among the first to receive its license. The company has invested $30 million into his 167,000-square-foot facility near Raymond, according to CEO Clint Peterson. The company has received four licenses so far to transport, dispose of, produce, and grow medical marijuana and medical marijuana products.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
A current look at the number of applicants for medical marijuana \u2014 divided by type of application \u2014 including licenses and permits issued.<\/span><\/strong><\/caption>\n
Business licenses<\/th>\n27<\/td>\n9<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Work permits<\/th>\n72<\/td>\n58<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Practitioners<\/th>\n40<\/td>\n24<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Patients<\/th>\n9<\/td>\n13<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Dispensaries<\/th>\n111<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Another one of the other first businesses to get a license to grow marijuana is River Remedy and its executive director, Ridgeland native William Chism. Chism, a Yale graduate and former investment banker, took a leave of absence while getting his master\u2019s in business administration at Harvard to shepherd the new company.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did not make the decision to leave business school for a year lightly but this is too important,\u201d\u00a0Chism said.<\/p>\n

He had been watching the local industry from afar, but the timing to be part of the new wave of Mississippi business drew him back home.<\/p>\n

Chism\u2019s company has plans to grow, process, manufacture and sell medical marijuana. Their flagship store will be in Byram, where their 37,000-square-foot grow facility is already located.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to be among the first to market,\u201d said Chism, referring to medical marijuana products availability to patients. \u201cWe completed our cultivation construction and we\u2019re ready to come to market fairly soon this fall.\u201d<\/p>\n

Remedy, Chism said, has positioned itself to be a midsize player in the new Mississippi industry. It is much larger than a micro-grower but not as large as some of the other companies early to the market.<\/p>\n

Southern Crop, which already has medical marijuana businesses in Louisiana, also received licenses for cultivation and processing. The company\u2019s CEO, pharmacist Randy J. Mire, announced the company was the first in Mississippi to get an issued license to begin growing marijuana and processing products on July 8. That will happen in its Meridian facility.<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s newly established businesses are also on the hunt for workers. Seventy-two people statewide are waiting on their permits to work in the medical marijuana industry and 58 already have received their permits, according to the health department.<\/p>\n

Chism, for example, plans to hire about 40 people from cultivation technicians to traditional accounting and HR jobs. He said companies know Mississippians won\u2019t have direct experience with the plant unless they\u2019ve worked out of state and that shouldn\u2019t deter people from applying.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally, it\u2019s about learning quickly, strong attention to detail and a passion for what you\u2019re doing,\u201d Chism said.<\/p>\n

Most of the state\u2019s new medical marijuana businesses have advertised competitive pay, starting between $15 and $17 an hour.<\/p>\n

The health department is still processing 40 applications for practitioners\u2014nurses, doctors, opticians\u2014to be able to see patients. The department has given 24 licenses to practitioners, allowing them to prescribe medical marijuana cards to patients.<\/p>\n

So far, only 13 patients have received medical marijuana cards and nine others have submitted applications. There is no medical marijuana yet available to purchase in Mississippi.<\/p>\n

Newburger said that number isn\u2019t an indication of demand.<\/p>\n

\u201cPatients aren\u2019t jumping up and down to get a card they cannot use,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He expects that number to explode once medical marijuana products are close to being on sale and doctors and other providers better establish their new medical marijuana practices.<\/p>\n

He said other businesses, such as cultivators and processors, will still steadily come on line as well. Many are dealing with supply chain slowdowns as they construct their growing facilities and finish plans.<\/p>\n

The applications are also complex. Chism said when he put his in for cultivation on June 1, it totaled hundreds of pages of documents.<\/p>\n

None of the more than 100 dispensary hopefuls have heard back yet on whether their applications have been accepted. By law, the department of revenue has 30 days to process them.<\/p>\n

Hemp World co-owner DeAundrea Delaney hopes to run a dispensary after years selling CBD. She was still putting on the finishing touches on her application this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m taking my time and making sure everything is correct,\u201d she said. \u201cApplication fees are nonrefundable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Between the costs to apply and the actual license, dispensaries are on the hook for $40,000.<\/p>\n

Delaney hopes to open a dispensary in Pearl. She said potential dispensaries have been courteous, trying to figure out where others are going so they don\u2019t interfere with each other. Ultimately, it\u2019s a gamble and she doesn\u2019t expect everyone to play nice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know it would be 100 already,\u201d she said Wednesday. \u201cThat\u2019s exciting, but, gosh, I better hurry.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was first published by Mississippi Today.<\/a><\/p>\n

The post Mississippi Businesses Rush To Compete For Medical Marijuana Licenses<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\u201cThe dispensary applications have created a race of who could apply faster to mark their territory.\u201d By Sara DiNatale, Mississippi Today Mississippi\u2019s hopeful medical marijuana dispensary owners are in turf wars across the state as they rush to get in applications to lay their stake in the new industry. TheContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":457,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1335],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56057"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56057"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56058,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56057\/revisions\/56058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}