The state of Mississippi has issued four businesses in Vicksburg a license to dispense medical cannabis.

On Aug. 5, the Mississippi Medical Cannabis Program released a list of licensed medical cannabis businesses in the state.

Vicksburg Mayor George Flaggs Jr. said he was looking forward to the businesses joining the city’s business and health care communities.

“I think it’s going to be good for the economy and I think it’s going to create access to health care for our community and stimulate the economy and I think it’s going to increase utilization of primary care doctors because you’ve got to go through them in order to access medical marijuana,” he said.

Vicksburg is the only nearby municipality aside from the Jackson Metro area with medical cannabis businesses as of Aug. 5. There have been no licenses issued for Claiborne, Sharkey or Issaquena counties.

Flaggs said he attributes the number of licensed dispensaries setting up shop in Vicksburg to the pace at which the Board of Mayor and Aldermen approved the city’s local medical cannabis ordinance.

“We were one of the first to adopt the ordinance,” Flaggs said. “We didn’t do any restrictions more restrictive than the state. That will allow us to have a more open market. If we’ve got four, I think the law says you can have only five in each city.”

State Health Officer and Vicksburg physician Dr. Dan Edney echoed Flaggs’ statements, saying the addition of medical cannabis in a physician’s toolkit will help treat a wider array of patients.

“There will be ample access for anyone in Warren County who wants to take advantage of it,” Edney said. “It’s our hope at the (Mississippi State Department of Health) that the majority of people will work with their individual physicians to be treated appropriately with medical cannabis — not just going someplace where you pay them the money and they’ll get you a card — but really, for it to be medical cannabis, it needs to be managed just like pain medicine, anxiety medicine, ADHD medicine.”

The importance of working with one’s primary care provider to determine the risks and benefits of medical cannabis for each patient cannot be understated, Edney said.

He also stated that there won’t be any legal medical cannabis in Mississippi until early next year.

“Right now we do have cultivators who have started planting, and they just got them in the ground very recently,” he said. “They have to get through their first growth cycle, and then processing and testing. … It’s going to take a while, but right now there is no legal medical marijuana (for purchase) in Mississippi.”

So far, the four dispensary businesses are: Mississippi Provisions 3 LLC, The Green Standard LLC, The Kush Spot LLC and LeafMed2 LLC, are the only medical cannabis businesses in Warren County. All four lie within the city of Vicksburg.

Warren County Board of Supervisors President Kelle Barfield stated Friday that the county has not seen any applications for medical marijuana businesses in its jurisdiction.

“The Board of Supervisors continues to monitor interest in business development around medical cannabis,” Barfield said. “Consumers having options for legal products and services is always desirable.”