Sales of huge portion of marijuana product still on hold. See why

Many of Mississippi's marijuana dispensaries are having to work through not being able to sell a large percentage of their product.

According to the Mississippi Department of Health, mass re-testing of certain medical cannabis products placed on an administrative hold began Wednesday. However, the hold on products has been in place since Dec. 21.

The Department of Health and the Mississippi Medical Cannabis Program said it anticipates cleared products will be back on dispensary shelves soon.

"The re-testing process for all products under the administrative hold is expected to take two to three weeks," a statement from the MSDH said. "Cleared batches of products will be released each Friday until all products are re-tested. The priority for re-testing starts withflower/bud, which serves as the base for many products, followed by concentrates and then infused products."

In December, MSDH stated in a December press release, according to the Associated Press, that it was trying, “to validate results related to the use of pesticides and presence of mycotoxins," which are produced by fungi."

No illnesses from the products have been reported though.

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Jenni Sivils, co-owner of Uptown Funk in Jackson, said she is having to do business, despite not being able to sell approximately 90% of the content on her shelves.

Mississippi has several different testing facilities, but two do more testing than the rest.

"Of the two operating testing labs in the state, the larger one's license was suspended and everything they have tested is on hold," said Kathy Hartwell, the other co-owner of Uptown Funk.

"The last time, something like this happened, it took 60 days to resolve and the items had to be tested a second time," she said. "We are looking at about $100,000 worth of re-testing, if they decide that's what needs to happen."

In an email to dispensaries in December, the MSDH said, in part, "Rapid Analytics, LLC's license to operate as a medical cannabis testing facility has been suspended until further notice. Rapid has been ordered to cease testing any medical cannabis products pending further investigation of the laboratory's methods and protocols. Due to the nature of violations on which Rapid's suspension is based, and in order to protect the health and safety of medical cannabis patients and the public at large, all medical cannabis products with Certificates of Analysis for compliance tests issued by Rapid shall be immediately quarantined."

Laura Goodson, director of the Mississippi Medical Cannabis Program, sent a statement on Thursday as an update.

“Patient safety is our top priority," she said in the statement. "We are tasked with making sure all test results meet the regulatory standards and that approved products are available to those in the medical cannabis program."

In the meantime, dispensaries are left to wait with little-to-no product to sell.

"Everything the manufacturers and growers are doing is absolutely useless right now until we find out when the state is going to allow us to sell that product again," Sivils said. "We have about 17,000 products we cannot sell right now. There are many, many, many vertically inclined dispensaries that grow their own product, they process their own product. They only sell their product. They are shut down completely because all of their product was tested by (Rapid Analytics). Now all of their products are on hold."

The Clarion Ledger contacted three other dispensaries as well as Rapid Analytics. None wanted to comment for this story.

"We don't choose who we test with," Sivils said. "The brands we buy from, they choose who they test with, but Rapid Analytics is a very popular choice, obviously."

Sivils said that she and Hartwell were touring a growing facility in December when the testing issues were originally announced.

"They actually test all of their product through (Rapid Analytics)," Sivils said. "It felt like the apocalypse. Everyone there, their phones started to ring. It felt like some sort of chaos like on Wall Street. It was pretty wild. I am laughing, so I don't cry. But the problem is they can take as much time as they want to release these products."

Ross Reily can be reached by email at rreily@gannett.com or 601-573-2952. You can follow him on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter @GreenOkra1.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Sales of huge portion of marijuana product put on hold in MS