HB 1711 Mississippi House · 2026 Regular Session

Medical cannabis; dispensary may sell directly to the designated caregiver without the qualifying patient being present.

HB 1711 modifies Mississippi's Medical Cannabis Act to streamline access for patients with caregivers. It amends Section 41-137-23 to require criminal background checks for designated caregivers only once every five years (instead of more frequently) for registry card renewals. Additionally, it amends Section 41-137-39 to allow dispensaries to sell medical cannabis directly to a registered designated caregiver on behalf of a qualifying patient without the patient needing to be present. This directly affects registered qualifying patients, their designated caregivers, and dispensaries operating under the state's medical cannabis program.

Issues: ✓ Healthcare

Bill status died 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2026

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Jan 19, 2026 Last action Feb 12, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

As Introduced → Current version · 3 edits

MINOR

The bill was amended to change the background check renewal frequency for designated caregivers from every three years to every five years, and to add page headers and formatting consistent with committee substitute markup. This reduces administrative burden on caregivers while maintaining the core medical cannabis program requirements.

Scope change

The bill's scope remains focused on amending Mississippi Code sections 41-137-23 and 41-137-39 regarding medical cannabis registry identification cards and dispensing procedures. No substantive changes to eligibility criteria, possession limits, or dispensary requirements were made.

REQUIREMENT

Changed the required frequency of criminal background checks for registered designated caregivers from once every three years to once every five years when renewing registry identification cards.

TECHNICAL

Added page headers and formatting consistent with committee substitute markup, including bill number identifiers and page references that were missing from the original version.

Removed redundant header information that appeared in the 'As Introduced' version, consolidating the bill title and session information into a single formatted header.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Feb 3, 2026

Lower · Passed

Title Suff Do Pass Comm Sub

lower

Jan 19, 2026

Committee

Referred To Public Health and Human Services

lower

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors