Keesler Cannabis Guide: Biloxi, Mississippi

Harrison County registered 7,631 medical cannabis patients, more than any other county in Mississippi and roughly 3,500 above the capital county, on a population of about 211,000. Biloxi supplies a large share of that, and the ten licensed dispensaries inside the city limits reflect it. The Coast pattern is different from the rest of the state in one obvious way: a steady flow of out-of-state visitors, which is why the nonresident registry card, valid 15 days and renewable once per year, gets used here far more than in Tupelo or Meridian.

Two hard limits shape a Biloxi trip more than anywhere else. Keesler Air Force Base occupies a substantial block of the peninsula, and federal property does not recognize a state registry card under any circumstance. And Mississippi authorizes no public consumption at all, which covers the beach, the boardwalk, hotel balconies and every casino floor from Point Cadet to the west end. Buying is legal, using it in public is not, and the two facts sit uncomfortably close together in a resort town.

Retail sorts itself into three pockets. On the peninsula, counters operate at 771 Water Street and 913 Division Street. West Biloxi carries the densest run, with 2389 and 2572 Pass Road, 232 DeBuys Road and 282 Eisenhower Drive. North of the bay in the 39532 zip, stores sit at 921 Cedar Lake Road, 12242 Shriners Boulevard, 14313 Stenum Street and on Highway 67. Ocean Springs adds eight more counters a bridge away.

Two agencies split the job here, and knowing which one to call saves you a wasted afternoon. The Mississippi State Department of Health runs the Mississippi Medical Cannabis Program: it registers patients and caregivers, approves certifying practitioners, and licenses growers, processors, labs, transporters and disposal firms. The Department of Revenue, through its Alcoholic Beverage Control enforcement division, licenses and polices the dispensaries themselves. Patient questions go to MCRegistration@msdh.ms.gov; complaints about a store go to the ABC permit desk.

The market is no longer new. Health department figures put active patients at 66,041 at the close of 2025, up from 49,626 a year earlier, and the transparency portal showed 70,300 approved patient registrations by September 2026. Retail sales reached $138,863,945 across calendar 2025. Cultivators pay a 5 percent excise tax on their first transfer of flower or trim; you pay the ordinary 7 percent state sales tax at the counter, plus a local levy if you shop in Jackson or Tupelo. Statewide averages published by the program put flower at $22.50 per unit and concentrate near $44.

Senate Bill 2748, effective July 1, 2025, made the most consequential change since launch. It redefined one Mississippi Medical Cannabis Equivalency Unit for infused products as a full gram of total THC instead of 100 milligrams, which multiplied how many gummies a 24-unit monthly allotment actually buys. The same bill opened telemedicine certification for homebound and bedbound patients and barred license applicants from filing for local zoning before the state signs off.

The 2026 session changed nothing. Bills to lift the potency ceilings, drop the six-month follow-up visit, let caregivers buy without the patient present, regulate hemp THC retail and ban hemp drinks all died before a floor vote.

Mississippi grows and processes everything it sells, so the brand shelf is entirely home-grown and rotates fast. Health department counts for 2025 listed 53 cultivation and 57 micro-cultivation licensees feeding 17 processors and 20 micro-processors, with only two testing labs certifying the whole supply. That concentration is worth knowing: when a lab bulletin goes out, it moves inventory across the entire state at once. Rather than chase a house name, ask the agent which cultivator grew the batch, then read the certificate of analysis for total THC, terpene percentage and the harvest date. The program publishes a plain-English guide to reading a COA on its patient resources page.

Dispensary count peaked and then thinned. The health department logged 200 stores at the end of 2024 and 171 by December 29, 2025, while sales still climbed to $138.9 million, which means the survivors absorbed the closures. The registry was back to 191 records by September 2026. Cultivation licenses fell from 61 to 53 over the same stretch and testing labs dropped from four to two. Consolidation, not contraction, is the honest read.