In May of 2021, the Alabama Legislature passed, and Gov. Kay Ivey signed legislation making medical marijuana legal in the state. It is now 31 months later, and not one Alabamian has legally made the first dollar selling medical cannabis, but a lot of lawyers have been paid for their services. The newest lawsuit challenging the Alabama Cannabis Commission’s awarding of licenses was filed in federal court on Monday.
On Friday, the Commission made license awards for cannabis cultivators, processors, state testing laboratories, and secure transporters.
Enchanted Green, which was rejected for a processor license on Friday filed the suit.
Four business entities were awarded medical cannabis processor licenses. These were:
· Organic Harvest Lab, LLC
· Coosa Medical Manufacturing
· 1819 Labs, LLC
· Jasper Development Group Inc.
The original statute limits the Commission to a maximum of four processor licenses that it may award.
In June the Commission announced that 1819 Labs, LLC; Enchanted Green, LLC; Jasper Development Group Inc.; and Organic Harvest Lab, LLC would get the four processor awards. Those previous awards were later rescinded by the Commission after failed applicants objected to the process and filed suit in Montgomery Circuit Court. Applicants who were denied licenses in June brought lawsuits complaining about the process. To settle those lawsuits, the Commission agreed to rescind the old awards and issue new awards without considering the scoring by the independent evaluators hired by the University of South Alabama.
This time, Enchanted Green and Jasper Development tied in rankings compiled by the Commission for the fourth spot. Coosa Medical Manufacturing leapfrogged both of them to get the award. The Commissioners then broke the tie between Enchanted Green and Jasper Development Group by pulling names out of a bowl.
The lawsuit claims that after the drawing, the Commissioners voted to award the license to Jasper Development and did not vote on Enchanted Green.
Enchanted Green is claiming that their right to due process rights were violated and they asked the court to issue an emergency injunction to stop the AMCC from issuing the licenses.
Enchanted Green has already paid $40,000 to the state for the license that was previously awarded and then rescinded. The previous U.S.A. rankings had Enchanted Green in second place. The new Commission rankings had them tied with Jasper Development for fourth place.
They also objected to how the drawing was handled and that they were not allowed to inspect the ballots being drawn.
“There was no evidence or indication that both applicants’ names were actually contained on pieces of paper in the bowl, that the pieces of paper were folded so the selecting commissioner could not see which one he was choosing, that the pieces of paper were the same size, weight, shape, character, and indistinguishable from one another other than the differing names on them, or that any other parameter(s) of a fair drawing were followed by the Commission and its commissioners,” the lawsuit said.
If an injunction is placed on the licensing then it could be well into next year before Alabamians with a demonstrable medical need will be able to obtain legal medical cannabis.
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