Key Takeaways
- Weed is not legal for recreational use in Mississippi, but possession of less than 30 grams is only punishable with a fine of between $100 and $250.
- Medical marijuana is legal, and qualifying patients can buy up to 3.5 grams of flower per day, six days a week, with a possession limit of 98 grams.
- Delta-8 THC is not legal in Mississippi, but some stores appear to sell it anyway.
Weed is legal for medical use in Mississippi but not for recreational use. However, the state has decriminalized possession of up to 30 grams, so recreational users are only punished with a fine in the first instance. Delta-8 is also illegal under state law.
However, the medical program is pretty comprehensive, although not in full swing yet, so you do have options if you want to consume cannabis. There are many rules you should know about before you light up, though.
Is Weed Legal in Mississippi?
Weed is legal for medical use in Mississippi and small amounts are decriminalized for recreational users. Possession of less than 30 grams is only punishable by a fine.
Is Recreational Weed Legal in Mississippi?
Weed is not legal for recreational use in Mississippi. It is decriminalized across the state provided you have less than 30 grams.
However, this is slightly undermined by the state still criminalizing paraphernalia such as pipes or bongs. There was also an attempt to get legalization on the ballot in 2022, but this failed due to what can only be described as the worst citizen initiative ballot process in the country.
Penalties for Possession
Since weed is not legal in Mississippi, there are punishments for possession depending on how much you have and how often you’ve been caught before.
The punishments are:
- For less than 30 g, the state has decriminalized possession, so the only punishment in the first instance is a fine of between $100 and $250. If you’ve been convicted in the previous two years, the fine is $250 and you can get up to 60 days in county jail. For a third (or subsequent) offense, the fine is from $250 to $1,000 and you can get up to 6 months in the county jail.
- If you have more than 30 g but less than 250 g, you can be fined up to $1,000 and sentenced to county jail for up to one year.
- For 250 to 500 g, you’ll be imprisoned for between 2 and 8 years and can be fined up to $50,000.
- For 500 g to 1 kg, the prison time can reach 16 years (4 minimum) and the fines increase to a maximum of $250,000.
- For between 1 and 5 kg, you’ll be imprisoned for up to 24 years (6 minimum) and fined up to $500,000.
- For more than this, the prison sentence increases to 10 to 30 years and the fines can reach $1,000,000.
Is Medical Marijuana Legal in Mississippi?
Medical marijuana is legal in Mississippi, following a legal battle ultimately culminating in the passage of SB 2095 in 2022.
The question first appeared on the ballot in November 2020, where it passed with a resounding 74% of the vote. However, the mayor of Madison challenged the initiative’s legitimacy, on the basis of an out-of-date law.
Old rules require that signatures from any one congressional district not exceed 20% of the total. This was such because Mississippi used to have five congressional districts, but it was redrawn in 2000 so it only contained four. This would mean it is literally impossible to successfully create a citizen initiative in the state.
The Supreme Court ruled that the initiative was indeed illegal, pointing out, “Whether with intent, by oversight, or for some other reason, the drafters of section 273(3) wrote a ballot initiative process that cannot work in a world where Mississippi has fewer than five representatives in Congress. To work in today’s reality, it will need amending—something that lies beyond the power of the Supreme Court.”
As a result of this ruling bumping up against the wishes of state citizens, politicians found sufficient middle-ground to pass SB 2095 in early 2022. After a lot of legislative work, the program is now up and running.
Medical Marijuana Patient Possession Limits
SB 2095 places limits on the amount patients are allowed to buy under the Mississippi medical marijuana program. In particular, it states that patients can buy 3.5 g of flower, 1 g of concentrate or 100 mg of THC in an infused product per day.
You can use this allowance 6 days in a week or 24 days in a 30-day period. The possession limit is set at 98 g of flower, 28 g of concentrate or 2.8 g of THC in infused products, equal to 28 Mississippi Medical Cannabis Equivalency Units (MMCEUs).
How to Get a Medical Marijuana Card in Mississippi?
The process for getting a medical marijuana card in Mississippi follows the pattern of most of the programs around the country.
The first step is going to visit a medical professional capable of certifying patients for cannabis use and being diagnosed with one of the qualifying conditions for the program:
- Agitation of dementia
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease
- Autism
- Cachexia, or wasting disease
- Cancer
- Chronic pain
- Crohn’s disease
- Glaucoma
- Hepatitis
- HIV/AIDS
- Huntington’s disease
- Multiple sclerosis
- Muscular dystrophy
- Neuropathy
- Seizures
- Severe and persistent muscle spasms
- Severe or intractable nausea
- Spastic quadraplegia
- Spinal cord disease or severe injury
- Pain that’s not responsive to opioids
- Parkinson’s disease
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Sickle cell disease
- Ulcerative colitis
After this, your physician will certify you for the medical use of marijuana if he or she believes it’s appropriate in your case. Within 6 months of receiving this certification, you can register for the online portal and, after you’ve verified your registration, submit your application for your medical marijuana card.
Can You Consume Weed in Public in Mississippi?
Although you can legally use weed for medical purposes, it’s illegal to smoke weed in public in Mississippi (page 31, lines 839-842). This would likely be punished in line with the fines for smoking in public places, so with a fine of $50 or $100.
Can You Drive Under the Influence of Marijuana in Mississippi?
It’s basically always illegal to drive under the influence of marijuana across the US, and Mississippi is no exception.
The state bans driving under the influence of any substance that impairs your ability to drive safely. There is also an implied consent law in the state, so by driving on public roads, you’ve already given your consent for blood, breath, or urine tests for drugs and alcohol. If you refuse, your license will be suspended for 90 days and the refusal itself will be admissible as evidence in court.
For the DUI itself, the punishments are:
- For a first offense, you’ll be fined between $250 and $1,000, put in jail for up to 48 hours or both. Your license will also be suspended for up to 120 days. In some cases, you can be made to attend a victim impact panel instead of jail time.
- For a second offense (within 5 years), the fines increase to between $600 and $1,500, you’ll receive between 5 days and six months of imprisonment and get between 10 days and six months of community service. Your license will be suspended for 1 year, your vehicle could be impounded and you’ll be assessed to see if you need substance abuse treatment.
- For a third offense (within 5 years), it becomes a felony. You’ll be fined between $2,000 and $5,000, will be sentenced to between 1 and 5 years imprisonment, your vehicle will be seized and your license will be suspended for the length of your prison sentence. You’ll also only be allowed to drive a car with an ignition interlock device for three years after your release
- For a fourth or subsequent offense (in any time period), the fine increases to between $3,000 and $10,000, and you’ll be imprisoned for between 2 and 10 years, your license will be suspended for the whole period of the sentence, and for 10 years afterward, you’ll only be allowed to drive a vehicle with an ignition interlock fitted.
Is Delta-8 THC Legal in Mississippi?
Delta-8 THC is technically not legal in Mississippi.
Although the state passed SB 2725 in 2020, which defines hemp (page 3, lines 51-57) in line with federal law, the state’s controlled substances bill (pages 9-10, lines 212-225) uses a broad definition for THC, including isomers like delta-8.
Additionally, the exemptions from the controlled substances bill for “hemp” and “hemp products” are not as straightforward as in most states, and it’s possible that no hemp products are actually legal in the state.
However, stores do sell hemp products regardless.
RELATED: Where Is Delta-8 THC Legal? A State-by-State Guide
Is Weed Decriminalized in Mississippi?
Weed is decriminalized in Mississippi.
Possession of less than 30 g is only punishable by a fine of between $100 and $250 in the first instance. However, the second offense within two years is punishable by a $250 fine, up to 60 days in county jail, and participation in a drug education program. A third offense rises to a maximum $1,000 fine and 6 months in county jail.
So technically, weed is decriminalized in Mississippi, but only for small amounts and the first time you get caught. This is good, in that you won’t get jail time right away, but it moves to a criminalized system pretty quickly for subsequent offenses.
Is Growing Weed Legal in Mississippi?
Despite legalizing medical marijuana, Mississippi does not allow patients to cultivate their own marijuana. And of course, if you’re a recreational user you can’t grow weed either.
Punishments for cultivation are dependent on the amount of cannabis produced and fall in line with the amounts listed in the “Penalties for Possession of Weed in Mississippi” section above.
When Will Weed Be Legal in Mississippi? The Future Outlook
There have been attempts to legalize marijuana in Mississippi, but overall it is likely to be an uphill battle.
The story of the medical cannabis law really shows the issue quite clearly. While most marijuana legalization bills are citizen-led initiatives, the Mississippi court made it clear that no such initiatives are even possible in the state at present.
Over 70% of voters were in favor of this change, but a small-town mayor was essentially able to derail the whole process. Not because of an argument about the bill being fit-for-purpose or having issues that needed to be addressed, but through a loophole that had opened up in state law.
The point of revisiting this story is simple: it took several years to get a medical bill on the books in Mississippi, and there is very little citizens can do to push the issue at present. An attempt to expand the medical cannabis law in 2024 was ultimately unsuccessful, and attempts to rectify the issues with the citizen initiative process have similarly failed.
So it seems unlikely that the state will legalize weed any time soon, despite a 2021 poll suggesting that 52% of state residents support legalization. In fact, the federal government might beat them to it.
Conclusion
Weed is decriminalized in Mississippi, and you can use it for medical purposes, but Mississippi weed laws don’t allow recreational use.
If you have a qualifying condition, you can buy 3.5 grams of cannabis a day with a total possession limit of 98 g, and if you have less than 30 g and no prior convictions, the risks are minimal.
Unfortunately, though, despite some positive indications and broad support among the public, Marijuana laws in Mississippi are still quite strict in many areas.