PINE BELT, Miss. (WDAM) – Lawmakers have voted to make some big changes to Mississippi’s Medical Cannabis Program. Now, two bills are headed to the governor’s desk.

House Bill 895 makes the system less restrictive for current patients, including eliminating THC limits on some products.

“HB 895 basically removes the concentrate cap, which is right now it’s capped at 60%,” said Local Dispensary owner Michael Haddox. “The issue with that is basically that it causes concentrates to have to be cut with some agent to dilute it to that 60% mark.”

Haddox owns Mary Jane & Herb’s, located at 135 Thornhill Dr in Hattiesburg, and he says this cap has been a long-standing issue.

“The point of concentrates is to have a potent product,” Haddox said. “Like cancer patients need the most potent product they can have without the limitations of cutting agents and things like that. So this is going to get just better quality medicine in the hands of our patients.”

Also under the bill, medical cannabis cards would last longer, six-month doctor follow-ups would be removed, and caregiver cards would be extended.

“For some patients, that yearly renewal and then followed by a six-month follow-up has always been kind of an issue, so this will make the cards good for one year without the follow-up,” Haddox said. “Caregivers will get a two-year card, which eliminates that yearly renewal process.”

Meanwhile, HB 1152 aims to bring access to new patients.

Doctors will be able to petition for their non-qualifying patients with serious conditions to get medical cannabis.

“It gives the doctor a little more leeway in what they think they can use it for,” Haddox said. “It is a medical program, so we want our doctors to have the access to prescribe the medicine for how they see fit and not the legislators.”

Together, the two bills make the program more flexible for patients and doctors, a step Haddox says is in the right direction.

“It’s just an incremental approach,” Haddox said. “But I mean, there’s a lot of things that need to be changed, but it’s kind of one little thing at a time because when you get too broad on the changes, it gets thrown out. So you have to push for one little, tiny change at a time.”

Both bills have passed the legislature and now head to the governor’s desk.

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