Do Mississippi’s Medical Cannabis Advertising And Marketing Restrictions Go Too Far?
Cannabis patient numbers in Mississippi are not rising at the pace many hoped
If you haven’t heard, the patient numbers in Mississippi’s new medical cannabis program are not rising at the pace many hoped they would. This has caused quite a bit of concern across the industry down here. A healthy pool of patients is critical to keeping new cannabis businesses afloat due to the hefty initial expenses they incur. Indeed, new cannabis businesses are heavily front loaded with a variety of costs, without the benefit of traditional lending options. For those not as familiar with this concept, we have written on it several times. That means these new businesses rely on funding via private capital raises or other non-traditional options. And, while new cannabis businesses must pony up the same type of front-end expenses new ventures in other industries incur (i.e., property acquisition/leasing, insurance, legal expenses, etc.), new cannabis businesses face other significant initial costs to ever get off the ground. Those unique costs include application and license fees that can approach or exceed six figures, state-of-the-art security and video surveillance related costs, uniquely high insurance premiums, consultant costs, uniquely high equipment and construction costs, and, if a cultivator, for example, exorbitantly high utility costs. Even more, cannabis businesses face significantly higher taxes than businesses operating in other industries, mostly due to IRS Code Section 280e. These businesses, therefore, need a revenue stream badly – and soon.
Diagnosing the reason for the low patient numbers in Mississippi leads to a number of potential causes:
- Are patient applications being processed timely?
- Are there enough certified practitioners available to see potential patients?
- Are the qualifying conditions too restrictive?
- Is the certification process too burdensome?
- Expense?
- Patient hesitance due to external factors, such as employment concerns, Second Amendment concerns, or a general stigma against cannabis use?
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