Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission ratifies agreement
On Monday, the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC) voted to ratify an agreement with plaintiffs’ attorneys to allow the AMCC to move forward with presentations from cannabis applicants as part of its new timeline to make license awards in December. Attorney Mark Wilkerson is representing the AMCC. Wilkerson said that after a day of court-ordered mediation, he and AMCC staff have reached a settlement with most of the plaintiffs to allow the AMCC to proceed with new license awards if the commission votes to ratify the agreement. Two major sticking points were addressed in the recent closed-door negotiations between all the attorneys. The first issue was the ten-megabyte limit on marijuana application size. The AMCC provided flexibility to help applicants work around the limit – but that information was not distributed, so some applicants submitted applications that were far smaller than what they would have preferred – or did not apply at all because they could not figure out how to downsize their application to ten megabytes without leaving out vital information. In the agreement, there is no limit on the application sizes, and applicants were allowed to submit material initially left out of their applications. The second sticking point was the scoring. The independent application evaluators hired by the University of South Alabama graded the applications, assigning them a numerical score and ranking them from first to worst based on that scoring. In the settlement, commissioners cannot consider any South Alabama scores when they make their awards. Any of the lawsuits over the scoring or the file size limit were dismissed with prejudice by the court in exchange for agreeing to those two final points. The Commission voted unanimously to ratify the agreement, meaning that the restraining order was lifted by the court. The Commission then began hearing presentations from applicants seeking cultivator licenses and the applicants seeking the marijuana testing laboratory license. Chey Garrigan is the founder and President of the Alabama Cannabis Industry Association (ACIA). “We are happy that the Commission ratified the settlement,” said Garrigan. “This was the only way that we could move forward with issuing the licenses.” “We were pleased with all of the presentations and look forward to working with all of the licensees in the future,” Garrigan added. The Commission willreturnk Tuesday to hear presentations from the secure transporter and processor applicants. On Wednesday, the Commission will listen to presentations from the dispensary Applicants. The Commission is expected to meet on December 1 to make those awards. Next week, the Commission will meet to consider applications from the thirty applicants vying for the integrated facility license. The integrator license allows a business entity to grow, process, transport, and dispense medical cannabis. The Commission can give a maximum of five integrated licenses – thirty applications for vertically integrated licenses were turned in. The Commission will meet on December 12 to award licenses to the integrators. AMCC Executive Director John McMillan has said he hopes that Alabamians will be able to purchase Alabama-grown medical cannabis products as early as March. All of the awards made by the AMCC in the June and August meetings have already been rescinded as part of the negotiations to end the litigation. To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Medical marijuana issue heads back to court on Wednesday
Litigants in Alabama’s ongoing medical marijuana litigation will be back in court on Wednesday to seek approval to reboot the awarding of marijuana licenses. The State Legislature passed, and Governor Kay Ivey signed, legislation legalizing medical marijuana in 2021. A number of business entities denied licenses to enter the state’s newest industry have sued over issues surrounding the license awards. Judge James Anderson is hearing those cases in Montgomery Circuit Court. Last Thursday, the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC) voted on a series of rule changes to address issues that plaintiffs have raised. The AMCC hopes that Judge Anderson will be satisfied with those changes and will allow the state to rescind those previous cannabis awards made by the Commission in June and August. Southeast Cannabis, which was awarded a license by the Commission in June and then had its award reaffirmed in August, is seeking a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the AMCC’s plan to rescind the awards and reconsider all of the applications. Judge Anderson last Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit by Verano, who was granted a license award in June and then denied in August, arguing that the license award was a property owned by Verano and, once awarded, could not be rescinded. Anderson ruled against Verano, accepting the AMCC’s position that a license, even though Verano paid the Commission $50,000 for the license, is a privilege and not a right; thus, the Commission does have the authority to rescind Verona’s license. Based on the Verano decision, it seems likely that Judge Anderson will rule against Southeast Cannabis’s request for a TRO. Alabama Always was denied a permit in the Commission’s June and August meetings. They are suing the state, arguing that the AMCC’s process was flawed and that the Commission violated Alabama’s Open Meetings Act when the commissioners went into a lengthy closed executive session. Other entities denied permits have since joined this litigation, and those suits have been consolidated into one case. Commission Chairman Rex Vaughn told reporters that, if the court allows, the Commission will rescind the awards and then hold hearings, giving the applicants the opportunity to present their case directly to the Commission. It is hoped that the Commission will be able to grant new awards in either December or January. The Commission is represented in the litigation by attorney Mark Wilkerson. Vaughn praised Wilkerson and the legal team representing the AMCC. “They have been a great asset to us, helping us wade through to where we are. They have done a magnificent job,” Vaughn said. The Commission has set a meeting for October 26. The legislation legalizing medical cannabis and creating the AMCC is the most restrictive in the country. The maximum number of marijuana grower, processor, transporter, laboratory, and dispensary licenses that the AMCC can award is limited by the 2021 legislation. The most sought-after license, the integrated facility (which can grow, process, and market cannabis all in-house), is limited to a maximum of five in the state. Due to the strict limits, most applicants will ultimately be denied. It will be some time well into 2024 before Alabamians with a demonstrated medical need will be able to legally purchase medical cannabis in the state as no crop can legally be planted until final approval is issued from the AMCC, and that can’t happen until the court lifts its hold on the issuing of the licenses. To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Stay on marijuana licenses extended again
On Wednesday, lawyers representing all the litigants in the ongoing medical marijuana license legal saga attended a hearing in Montgomery Circuit Judge James Anderson’s courtroom. Anderson, with the agreement of all parties involved, extended his temporary restraining order (TRO) on issuing medical cannabis licenses until at least the next scheduled meeting of the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC). After much discussion and a couple of conferences between the various attorneys involved in a back room outside of open court, all the counsels for the parties involved agreed to a continuation of the TRO. “The parties are in agreement to continue the TRO until the Commission’s next regularly scheduled meeting,” an attorney for the AMCC said. “There will be a meeting and probably a series of meetings to discuss what is going to happen in that meeting.” Judge Anderson said, “There needs to be four days to comply with the agreement.” The Commission’s attorneys agreed that the agenda for that future meeting should be released four days before the meeting. The AMCC has issued its own stay on the issuance of the medical marijuana grower, processor, transporter, dispensary, laboratory, and integrated facility licenses in acknowledgment of the pending litigation. Attorneys for Redbud made a motion to allow the failed marijuana applicant to join the ongoing plaintiff’s lawsuit. Redbud had intended to apply for a medical marijuana license but could not figure out how to make the AMCC’s website upload their application. The Redbud group was represented by Albert “Bert” Jordan of the Birmingham law firm of Wallace, Jordan, Ratliff, & Brandt in Wednesday’s hearing. Jordan explained that his clients tried to upload their application but was prevented by the AMCC’s limit on uploading files to no more than ten megabytes of data. “The ten-megabyte limit, it is really strange,” Jordan said. Jordan said that other applicants went to the AMCC and were given a workaround method of getting their applications submitted. “If we had known there was a workaround,” Redbud would have done it and gotten their application in Jordan claimed. “We are asking you to open the door,” for consideration of Redbud’s application, Jordan continued. “I felt like the facts showed that Redbud did not attempt to file,” Anderson said. “The relief that you are asking for is too late. The horse is already out of the barn.” Mark Wilkerson is representing the AMCC. An attorney for the AMCC said that Redbud’s people “were in the portal for less than 15 minutes total and none at all on the day that the application was due.” “Your honor should absolutely deny this motion,” the AMCC’s counsel added. “We did not wait too long. We exercised due diligence,” Jordan said. Jordan claimed that the AMCC allowed other applicants to add to their applications and make changes after December 31. Anderson said he would rule on Redbud’s motion sometime next week. Another applicant told Alabama Today that they made their application fit the 10-megabyte limit by submitting less information than they would have liked to have submitted. If they had known that the AMCC had allowed a workaround method to submit more information in their application, they would have done so. Their competitor, who was allowed to use the workaround, was able to submit more information with their application and then scored just ahead of them when the AMCC scored the applications. Other applicants whose applications were not accepted by the AMCC by the deadline also brought legal action but were allowed to have their applications considered by the AMCC because the court felt that they made a reasonable effort to comply with the AMCC’s demands. Redbud appealed their decision to the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals. The attorney for Verona asked that they not be consolidated with the other lawsuits. “We object to being consolidated,” their attorney said. “My inclination would be to do that with all of them except Verona,” Judge Anderson said. Verona sought and was awarded an integrated license application by the AMMCC in a meeting in June. The AMCC then vacated those awards and made new awards in August. Verona was the only one of the five business entities who were awarded integrator licenses in June who were not also awarded a license in the August awards. Anderson asked, “Is there any objection from all the other cases to be consolidated?” “No sir,” the other plaintiffs’ attorneys responded. A Mobile attorney asked that his client, who had applied for a dispensary license, be added to the growing number of plaintiffs in the lawsuit. “The cutoff for interventions was August 23,” Judge Anderson said. “My order had a cutoff date.” There is a calendar meeting of the AMCC on September 19r 19. The TRO is extended through at least that date. At some point in the future, the AMCC will do the license awards for a third time, under our current understanding of this ongoing Alabama legal drama. In this next meeting, the AMCC will be instructed by the court to comply with the Alabama open meetings statute, which the plaintiffs claim the Commission did not do in its previous awards meetings. The AMCC is limited in the number of licenses it can award by the 2021 statute legalizing medical marijuana in Alabama. That statute created the AMCC and tasked it with writing the rules for issuing medical marijuana licenses in the state of Alabama and then regulating the new industry. The AMCC has been restrained by the court from issuing any licenses for now. No one may grow or even possess seeds to lawfully grow marijuana in the state of Alabama until those licenses are issued. All efforts to get the medical cannabis industry up and running in Alabama are effectively on hold while the TRO remains in place. Any Alabamian with a documented medical need that cannabis might alleviate will have to wait until 2024 to purchase Alabama medical cannabis products legally. Homegrown or individual possession of any cannabis plants or plant material outside of the AMCC’s licensees will remain illegal in the state of Alabama even after medical cannabis is legalized in the form of Alabama.
Judge extends restraining order on issuing cannabis licenses until September
On Thursday, a Montgomery Circuit Court heard arguments from plaintiffs that the court’s temporary restraining order (TRO) on the state’s issuing of medical marijuana licenses be extended. Montgomery Circuit Judge James Anderson gave permission to the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC) to meet on Thursday and vote to implement their own stay on the issuing of cannabis licenses. Anderson extended his temporary restraining order to a hearing on the afternoon of September 6. The AMCC initially issued the licenses in June but then halted the license awards after an issue was detected in the tabulation of the awards. One of the aggrieved parties, Alabama Always, sued to block the issuing of the awards, claiming that the Commission did not follow the Alabama Open Meetings Law. The licenses were awarded for a second time in August. Alabama Always’ application for an integrated facility license was again rejected by the Commission. Verona was awarded a license in June, but not in August. They have since filed suit calling into question the process by which the awards were made in August. Attorney Mark Wilkerson, who represents the AMCC, told Judge Anderson that the commission intends to go back to “square one” and issue the licenses again. An attorney who represents one of the groups awarded a processor license asked that since the suit has been brought by parties seeking integrated facility licenses, and that there has been no complaint from growers or processors, that the growers, processors, transporters, and dispensary licenses be allowed to proceed. An attorney who represents a hemp processor in the Phenix City area whose application was denied then stood up and said that she had filed Sunday to enter this case and was seeking relief from the court. Judge Anderson took no action to release the processor, grower, transporter, or dispensary licenses from the TRO. An attorney for the plaintiffs expressed his disappointment with the process, stating, “In the last two or three days, we thought we had something in place.” That proposed agreement became unraveled at a conference with the judge held earlier on Monday at 11:30. One attorney said, “The director is not here. The deputy director does not appear to be here. We don’t know where we are getting this information from.” “I don’t want to negotiate in public,” the plaintiffs’ attorney said. “…..but that is what we are doing,” Judge Anderson quipped. “I would like for the commission to put a stay in play so the court does not have to order it.” Chey Garrigan is the Executive Director and founder of the Alabama Cannabis Industry Association. Garrigan held a press conference at the conclusion of the court proceeding. “We got everybody in the state fired up, asking, ‘When am I going to get my card?’” Garrigan said. “Let the growers go ahead and grow, let the processors go ahead and process, and let the dispensers go ahead and dispense.” “Every day, I get letters and emails from Alabamians who are seeking relief from medical cannabis,” Garrigan said. “We should have had this up and off the ground in September 2021. The people who were not in the courtroom today are not being represented. How many times are we going to have to go through these applications?” At the close of the hearing, Judge Anderson said, “I heard that Mississippi passed this six months after Alabama did. I heard that they were issuing prescriptions in January, so for once, we can’t say thank God for Mississippi.” To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
