Section 27-31-51 - Licensing; definitions(1) As used in Sections 27-31-51 through 27-31-61: (a) "Warehouse" or "storage facility" shall not apply to caves or cavities in the earth, whether natural or artificial;(b) "Governing authorities" means the board of supervisors of the county wherein the warehouse or storage facility is located or the governing authorities of the municipality wherein the warehouse or storage facility is located, as the case may be;(c) "Tax assessor" means the tax assessor of each taxing jurisdiction in which the warehouse or storage facility may be located.(2) All warehouses, public or private, or other storage facilities in the State of Mississippi regularly engaged in the handling and storage of personal property in structures or in places adopted for such handling and storage which is consigned or transferred to such warehouse or storage facility for storage and handling shall be eligible for licensing under the provisions of Sections 27-31-51 through 27-31-61 as a "free port warehouse." A manufacturer of personal property that maintains separate facilities, structures, places or areas for the temporary storage and handling of such personal property pending transit to a final destination outside the State of Mississippi shall be eligible for licensing under Sections 27-31-51 through 27-31-61 as a "free port warehouse," and any license issued to such a manufacturer before January 1, 2012, is hereby ratified, approved and confirmed. No medical cannabis establishment, as defined in the Mississippi Medical Cannabis Act, or warehouses, facilities, structures, places or areas belonging to or used by a medical cannabis establishment may be licensed as a free port warehouse.(3) Such licenses shall be issued by the governing authorities to such warehouse or storage facility as will qualify under the definition of "free port warehouse" as herein defined, upon application by the warehouse or storage facility operator.Codes, 1942, § 9699-01; Laws, 1962, ch. 595, § 1; Laws, 1981, ch. 419, § 1; Laws, 1993, ch. 621, § 2; Laws, 2002, ch. 402, § 1; Laws, 2012, ch. 342, § 1, eff. 1/1/2012.Amended by Laws, 2022, ch. 303, SB 2095,§ 77, eff. 2/2/2022.