The full rollout of Alabama’s medical marijuana industry remains on hold because of lawsuits challenging the state’s procedures, but the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission on Thursday did clear the way for two more companies to start growing plants.
The AMCC accepted the recommendations of an administrative law judge to issue cultivator licenses to Pure by Sirmon Farms LLC and Blackberry Farms LLC.
The recommendations came after investigative hearings that took place in May. The hearings give companies denied a medical cannabis license a chance to present additional testimony and evidence.
Pure by Sirmon Farms and Blackberry Farms will be issued licenses after paying license fees and site inspections, AMCC Chair Rex Vaughn said.
Their addition will bring to nine the total number of companies licensed to cultivate medical marijuana. The AMCC awarded licenses for seven others in December.
The plants are already being grown. But there is no way to get medical cannabis products to patients until more of the litigation is resolved.
Also on Thursday, The AMCC voted to deny licenses to three other companies that received negative recommendations from administrative law judges after investigative hearings.
Those companies can appeal the AMCC’s decisions to the circuit court.
Thursday’s decisions mark the end of the investigative hearing process for cultivators and secure transporters.
“I see it as proving that our process has worked on these two license categories,” Vaughn said. “That’s the way it’s supposed to work.”
The AMCC has issued licenses for cultivators, processors, secure transporters, and a state testing lab.
The AMCC has also named companies to receive integrated licenses, which will can cultivate, process, and dispense medical cannabis, and dispensary licenses. But the issuance of licenses in those two categories is on hold. Companies that were not picked have filed lawsuits challenging the AMCC’s procedures and rules.
Montgomery County Circuit Judge James Anderson has issued temporary restraining orders blocking the issuance of integrated and dispensary licenses.
The law places limits on how many licenses can be issued. For example, more than 30 companies applied for integrated licenses, but the AMCC can issue only five.
Anderson has said he understands the importance of clearing the way for patients to get medicine, but said the companies that are suing have shown a reasonable chance of succeeding on their claims challenging the AMCC’s procedures.
Amanda Taylor of Cullman, who has become a regular speaker at AMCC meetings, spoke again Thursday on behalf of the Patients Coalition for Medical Cannabis Alabama.
Taylor said she received relief from symptoms caused by multiple sclerosis, gastroparesis, and other conditions when she lived in Arizona and used medical cannabis. She returned to Alabama, her home state, to advocate for the medical cannabis bill and said it is disappointing that three years after the bill passed, the medical products are still not available.
“Everybody is wrapped up in greed and the last thing that people are looking at is the people who suffer,” Taylor said.
During an update on the litigation today, AMCC member Loree Skelton, an attorney, asked Mark Wilkerson, one of the attorneys representing the commission in the litigation, about the possibility of a settlement to end the lawsuits.
Wilkerson talked about the complexity of the litigation and said there is no sign of a consensus among the companies suing the AMCC that could lead to a settlement offer that the commission could consider.
“I suspect this body would be eager to entertain a proposal in which the applicants in a category agreed, brought something to the commission,” Wilkerson said. “I haven’t seen evidence to where applicants together could come in and agree.”
The law approved by the Legislature in 2021 created the AMCC to oversee a fully intrastate industry.
It allows companies to make gummies, tablets, capsules, tinctures, patches, oils, and other forms of medical marijuana products. Patients who receive a medical cannabis card will be able to buy the products at licensed dispensaries.
The products can be used to treat a wide range of conditions, including chronic pain, weight loss and nausea from cancer, depression, panic disorder, epilepsy, muscle spasms caused by disease or spinal cord injuries, PTSD, and others.
