Mississippi

Mississippi sits in a legal limbo of its own making: no comprehensive statutory framework for intoxicating hemp, but aggressive AG and county-sheriff enforcement filling the vacuum. The Mississippi Commercial Industrial Hemp Program at Miss. Code Ann. §69-25-201 et seq. — established by SB 2725 (signed by Gov. Reeves June 29, 2020) — mirrors the federal Farm Bill’s 0.3% delta-9 dry-weight standard for cultivation. HB 1547 later placed delta-8 THC and similar isomers on the state’s controlled substances list, creating an unresolved conflict with SB 2725’s hemp-derivative exemption. HB 1676 (2024) established a 21+ purchase age effective July 1, 2024, but its broader provisions (5mg per serving cap, DEA-certified COAs) died in conference and are not enforceable. The most substantial 2025 effort was HB 1502 (the Mississippi Hemp Act), authored by Rep. Lee Yancey (R-Rankin). HB 1502 would have separately regulated intoxicating hemp beverages through the Department of Revenue — treating them like beer, sold at gas stations, grocery stores, and other general retail — while moving other consumable hemp regulation to the Department of Health, imposing labeling and testing requirements, and applying a 3% excise tax. HB 1502 passed the House 82-27 and the Senate (as amended) 35-16 before dying in conference committee on April 3, 2025 by a single vote when the Legislature adjourned. Into the statutory vacuum stepped AG Lynn Fitch. On June 11, 2025, in response to a request from Rep. Yancey, AG Fitch issued an opinion stating that consumable hemp products lacking FDA approval are prohibited under Mississippi’s Uniform Controlled Substances Law unless sold through a licensed medical cannabis dispensary. The AG opinion is not law and remains legally untested, but it has functioned as operative constraint. Several county sheriff’s offices, including Jackson County and Lafayette County, sent letters to retailers demanding they pull non-FDA-approved hemp products from shelves. National hemp brands began pulling out or ceased DTC shipments to Mississippi addresses. The 2026 session brought two significant developments. First, SB 2645 (introduced January 2026) would have imposed a categorical ban on all beverages containing hemp, THC, or kratom in Mississippi; it died in Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee on February 3, 2026 — temporary relief for the hemp beverage segment, but a clear signal of continued ban appetite. Second, HB 1152 (the Right to Try Medical Cannabis Act, 2026) passed the Mississippi House 104-7 on February 5, 2026. HB 1152 is primarily a patient-access bill creating a petition process through the Mississippi Department of Health for patients with serious conditions not on the qualifying list, with the State Health Officer holding sole, final, non-appealable authority. Notably, HB 1152 amends the definition of ‘THC’ in the Mississippi Medical Cannabis Act to explicitly include THCA, delta-9, delta-8, delta-10, and delta-6 THC — reinforcing Mississippi’s total-THC interpretation and the AG’s channeling of intoxicating hemp to the medical program. For the federal cliff on November 12, 2026, Mississippi is unusual: Section 781’s 0.4mg-per-container ceiling will federally reinforce the AG opinion’s existing enforcement posture, and the practical Mississippi market post-cliff will look similar to today. Expect a rebooted HB 1502-style bill in the 2027 session — this time with federal cover — to establish a formal regulatory framework that replaces AG enforcement with statute, likely with a beverage carve-out through the Department of Revenue and dispensary-only routing for higher-potency edibles.