Mississippi: from grow to dispensary, what the label has to show

Step by step: Mississippi

1. Step 1: Harvest batch, 25 lb test packages (Cultivator) A cultivator licensed by the Mississippi State Department of Health tracks its plants in Metrc, the state’s seed-to-sale system. Under the June 2026 rules a finished harvest batch is split into harvest batch packages of 25 pounds or less, and compliance test samples come from those packages. This is where the label’s Metrc UID, harvest batch number (strain name plus harvest date) and licensee name come from.
2. Step 2: The lab’s own staff sample (Testing facility) Employees or agents of the testing facility collect and transport the samples, on the cultivator’s or dispensary’s premises, under a chain of custody. Testing is done on the final form: samples are drawn only after all processing of the lot is finished, and the sample must total at least 0.5% of the batch, built from many separate 1-gram increments that the lab homogenizes before testing.
3. Step 3: Independent, in-state, ISO 17025 (Testing facility) The lab is an independent facility licensed by the Department of Health and accredited to ISO/IEC 17025:2017, and all of its lab work must sit inside Mississippi. Its staff may not work for or own any other cannabis business. The panel covers cannabinoids, terpenes, microbes, mycotoxins, pesticides, heavy metals, residual solvents and foreign material, and total yeast and mold became mandatory on 30 October 2024.
4. Step 4: COA into Metrc (Testing facility) The lab issues the certificate of analysis and enters the results in Metrc within three business days of finishing the tests. A batch can be released for packaging and sale only once passing results are in the state system, and the lab holds a reserve sample for any reanalysis. This unlocks the label’s THC, CBD and terpene profile, which must match the final-form COA.
5. Step 5: Fail: reanalysis, then a second lab (MSDH / state law) Within three days of a failing COA, the licensee may ask the same lab to reanalyze the reserve, at its own cost. A pass then needs confirmatory retesting at a second lab. Remediation is allowed twice at most, after which flower is destroyed or made into concentrate, and failures for heavy metals, pesticides, STEC, Salmonella or mycotoxins cannot be remediated at all.
6. Step 6: Package + label (Cultivator) The package must be opaque and child-resistant, with no image beyond the business name and logo and no state seal. The label lists the licensee’s name, license number and address, the product name, batch number, Metrc UID and net weight, the potency from the COA (within 10% of the label claim), and the warning KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN with a notice of potential harm.
7. Step 7: Potency caps in the law (MSDH / state law) State law caps flower at 30% total THC and tinctures, oils and concentrates at 60%. A 2026 bill to lift the concentrate cap, HB 895, was vetoed on 26 March 2026, the governor calling the cap a reasonable and necessary check. Anything above 30% total THC must be labeled “extremely potent”, and edibles carry the Mississippi standard symbol when practicable.
8. Step 8: Dispensary sale (Dispensary) Dispensaries are licensed by the Mississippi Department of Revenue, not the health department. They may sell only products that passed the required testing, and everything must already be in compliant packaging when it enters the dispensary. Patients can ask the dispensary for the COA, and the program’s own guide suggests checking that THC, CBD and the batch number match the label.