John McMillan (right), executive president of the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission, takes a vote on resciding all awarded licenses and denials at a meeting in Montgomery on Oct. 26, 2023. Litigation continues over licenses issued by the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission even as mediation proceeds to end the impasse. (Alander Rocha/Alabama Reflector)
A state appeals court will hear oral arguments over a temporary restraining order issued against medical cannabis production licenses in the state.
Judges from the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals will hear arguments over Montgomery Circuit Court Judge James Anderson’s temporary restraining order against the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC), said Mark Wilkerson, an attorney representing the AMCC, during a commission meeting Thursday.
“If there are any further developments regarding that oral argument, we will also notify board members,” Wilkerson said.
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The Alabama Legislature in 2021 approved the creation of a state medical cannabis program to allow people with 15 different medical conditions, including cancer, depression, Parkinson’s Disease, PTSD, sickle-cell anemia, chronic pain, and terminal illness to apply for medical cannabis.
The law limits medical cannabis to tablets, capsules, gelatins, oils, gels, creams, suppositories, transdermal patches, and inhalable oils or liquids. Smoking marijuana or consuming it in edibles is forbidden. Gummies are allowed but are restricted to peach flavor.
But the program has been in limbo amid questions about the licensing process. An initial grant of licenses in 2023 was overturned amid concerns about scoring inconsistencies on applications. The commission voided a second round of applications later that year after a lawsuit alleging violations of the Open Meetings Act by the AMCC. Anderson blocked a third round of licenses last January, citing ongoing litigation from the first two rounds of awards.
Anderson last July that directed the AMCC and companies denied a license to provide a jointly proposed order allowing investigative hearings for the licenses that were awarded without allowing the licenses to be issued.
Wilkerson told the commission that mediation between the parties over licenses for integrated facilities – which grow, process and distribute medical cannabis in the same location – is ongoing.
“The overall goal being a process that would allow this commission to get to a final order and the actual issuance of licenses of course, that would be our goal certainly,” Wilkerson said.
There have been three meetings with everyone involved and additional meetings that included different groups involved in the litigation, according to Wilkerson.
“It is a pretty fast-moving process,” he said.
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