Regardless of Mississippi lawmakers’ failed try to ban intoxicating hemp merchandise this legislative consultation, the state’s best felony adviser to executive officers mentioned the ones merchandise are already prohibited within the Magnolia State.
State Legal professional Basic Lynn Fitch issued an opinion on June 11 that Mississippi’s Uniform Managed Components Legislation forbids the sale of consumable merchandise containing hemp derivatives that aren’t authorized via the U.S. Meals and Drug Management (FDA).
“Marijuana and THC are integrated on Mississippi’s Time table I managed components record,” she wrote.
Lynn mentioned the lone exception is for merchandise offered thru authorized clinical hashish dispensaries which might be regulated below the state’s Scientific Hashish Act that Republican Gov. Tate Reeves signed into legislation on Feb. 3, 2022—456 days after electorate authorized a clinical hashish initiative that the state’s Preferrred Courtroom overturned. Dispensary gross sales introduced in January 2023.
Fitch’s opinion was once based on Rep. Lee Yancey, R-Rankin, who sought readability at the subject after his regulation to prohibit intoxicating hemp merchandise, Space Invoice 1502, died at the calendar when the Mississippi Legislature adjourned on April 3.
Whilst Fitch spoke back, she additionally mentioned that her administrative center can’t opine on questions of federal legislation.
“For the reason that cultivation of hemp in Mississippi is legalized, authorized, and regulated via federal legislation, an entire reaction in your request is outdoor the scope of an legitimate opinion,” the legal professional normal wrote.
Underneath the 2018 Farm Invoice, hemp was once federally legalized and outlined as a plant that accommodates not more than 0.3% delta-9 THC on a dry-weight foundation all the way through a pre-harvest box check; alternatively, the federal legislation does now not come with provisions to keep watch over completed items, equivalent to delta-8 THC gummies, THCA vapes or different merchandise containing cannabinoids derived or synthesized from compliant hemp crops.
Those intoxicating hemp merchandise are frequently offered in smoke and vape stores in addition to comfort and grocery retail outlets in states equivalent to Mississippi, the place laws evade regulation.
In Mississippi, hemp is legally grown thru federal licensure below the U.S. Division of Agriculture’s Home Hemp Manufacturing Program.
Even supposing state lawmakers handed the Mississippi Hemp Cultivation Act in 2020 to legalize the state’s hemp cultivation program, the Legislature by no means appropriated vital investment to put into effect this system below the legislation—which means the one felony solution to develop hemp is during the federal program—in step with the Mississippi Division of Agriculture and Trade.
Because of this, hemp in Mississippi is outlined via federal legislation: the 2018 Farm Invoice.
Even supposing Fitch wrote that the state’s Uniform Managed Components Legislation might restrict the sale or ownership of consumable hemp merchandise that aren’t authorized via the FDA, she presented a conflicting observation in her reaction.
“Mississippi legislation does now not particularly cope with the ownership or sale of goods derived from the hemp plant designed for human ingestion and/or intake,” the Mississippi legal professional normal wrote. “Then again, as implied via your questions, the Mississippi Scientific Hashish Act … permits for the sale and ownership of clinical hashish merchandise, together with fit to be eaten hashish merchandise.”
Within the absence of felony readability, Yancey, a member of the Space Drug Coverage Committee, backed the now-dead 2025 regulation that had aimed to prohibit intoxicating hemp merchandise in Mississippi, with an exception for positive low-THC drinks to be offered to these 21 years and older. The regulation additionally meant to authorize the Mississippi State Division of Well being to keep watch over CBD merchandise.
Whilst some hemp-derived product producers have known as at the FDA to keep watch over the manufacturing, advertising and sale of CBD, the federal company has frequently kicked the can to Congress, asking for that federal lawmakers supply investment or take the lead themselves.
Whilst Yancey’s 2025 regulation handed the Mississippi Space in an 82-27 vote, the Senate handed an amended model of the invoice in a 35-16 vote; alternatively, the invoice stalled in a convention committee and was once left at the desk amid public pushback, partially over the allowance for hemp-derived THC drinks.
Yancey, who spearheaded the state’s clinical hashish legalization invoice 3 years in the past, mentioned the foundation of his 2025 regulation was once to offer protection to kids from gaining access to intoxicating hemp merchandise, SuperTalk Mississippi Media reported.
“Those [products] are already being offered within the gasoline stations and within the supermarkets, and it’ll change into an increasing number of rampant throughout our state,” Yancey informed the inside track outlet in April. “We had an opportunity to prevent this.”
