BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) – Both sides of the lawsuits tying up the medical cannabis process in Alabama agree on only one thing: we’re months away from any patient receiving potentially life-improving products.
This comes almost a year after the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC) was supposed to have issued the first-ever set of licenses to grow and sell medical marijuana in the state, a process that faced controversy, mistakes, and setbacks from the beginning.
“We’re ready to get to market as soon as we’re turned loose,” says Joey Robertson, of Cullman-based Med Solutions. His company is 1 of 5 granted an integrated license to do everything from growing to processing to selling medical marijuana, but all of that is on hold because of a restraining order tied to multiple lawsuits against the state cannabis commission—something the commission’s director addressed on Alabama Public Television’s Capitol Journal.
“Nobody’s more frustrated than our commission and our staff, because frankly, in my opinion, most of these lawsuits are frivolous,” AMCC Director John McMillan told Todd Stacy on Capitol Journal. “But they have been used as a delaying tactic. I hope, to some extent, a lot of the litigation came from the fact of–”let’s just block everything, let’s just keep the commission from being able to do anything. let’s just shut this program down through the courts and get something settled in the legislature.”
“That’s just not true,” says William Somerville, an attorney for Alabama Always, one of the companies denied a license by the AMCC and now suing the commission. “The commission violated the law in numerous ways, and continues to violate the law. The only thing that holds the process back is their refusal to comply with the law. If they followed the law, this would all be over with and patients would be getting the medication they need.”
“Not all lawsuits in the beginning were frivolous, but I can see where Director McMillan is coming from now, knowing that this is just dragging out,” Robertson said.
“I just don’t know,” McMillan told Capitol Journal. “I tend to be hopeful that within a matter of months we’ll have some kind of resolution within the courts and be able to stand up the dispensaries and integrators and let them join the other licenses that have been issued and get this program going.”
“I would hope Chairman McMillan’s timeline of a few months, which is optimistic, would come true because we would love to see this get off the ground and get started in the next few months as well,” Robertson says.
“I think there’s still a possibility to get this done within a year, but the courts have to get involved with it and force the commission to follow the law,” says Somerville.
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