OLIVE BRACH, Miss. (WMC) – The owner of an Olive Branch medical cannabis dispensary has asked the national Supreme Court to hear his case to challenge Mississippi’s ban on advertising legal cannabis businesses.

Clarence Cocroft, the owner of Tru Source Medical Cannabis, is filing a petition with the high court after November’s ban.

Cocroft filed a federal lawsuit over the ban in November of 2023.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ban last November.

The ban gave discretion to the Mississippi Department of Health to block dispensaries from “advertising and marketing in any media, including newspapers, television, magazines, social media, billboard, and email lists.”

Speaking on his position Cocroft said, “Because of these regulations, I cannot use my own billboards to advertise my own business or inform potential customers about Mississippi’s medical marijuana program,” said Clarence. “Advertising is particularly important for my business because it is tucked away in an industrial park without any real foot or vehicle traffic.”

His attorneys are from the Institute of Justice. Senior attorney Ari Bargil spoke on the state’s control limiting Cocroft and other businesses.

“Mississippi cannot simultaneously create an entire legal marketplace for an industry and then turn around and use an unenforced federal law to prevent those businesses from advertising their state-legal products. If a business is legal, then the business owner has a First Amendment right to speak truthfully about his or her business.”

In 2022, Cocroft used four billboards he owned to promote his new business when adult medical marijuana became legal.

Now with the ban, he has been forced to rent billboards out to other businesses.

Mississippi is not the only neighboring state with these advertising bans. Arkansas and Alabama also have strict restrictions on legal medical marijuana advertising.

Click here to sign up for our newsletter!

Click here to report a spelling or grammar error. Please include the headline.

Copyright 2025 WMC. All rights reserved.