The Medical Association has a policy that doctors cannot recommend medical cannabis until at least one license is issued in each category.
By Alander Rocha, Alabama Reflector
A Montgomery judge agreed Wednesday to amend a Temporary Restraining Order on the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission. This could potentially open the door for limited licensing to begin in the near term.
Montgomery Circuit Court Judge James Anderson made the decision to change the order after AMCC asked him to lift it before the next AMCC meeting. AMCC is fighting multiple lawsuits regarding the process.
Mike Jackson, AMCC’s attorney, stated that if the court were to dispel the temporary restraining orders, the commission would lift the administrative stay and revisit the decisions made at the August meeting. They would then proceed with those who were going to make presentations. We anticipate that this will all be completed before Christmas.
Anderson denied AMCC’s request, but asked plaintiffs and lawyers to decide a course of action for license categories where there are no applicants in the lawsuit.
The current restraining orders allows the commission the right to revoke licenses, but not the right to issue or award licenses. The order suspends deadlines for fee payments, and hearing requests from applicants who have been denied.
The AMCC could now move forward with the licensing process for labs, cultivators and transporters.
The commission plans to void licenses awarded to dispensaries, processors and integrated facilities–facilities that can produce medical cannabis from seed to store shelves–at its next meeting.
Attorneys representing medical cannabis companies suing the Commission objected to the lifting of the restraining orders, stating that it already allows for the commission to cancel licenses. They argued that lifting the restraining order completely would allow the commission issue licenses which are currently under litigation.
Wilson Green, the attorney for Jemmstone, Alabama, a facility that was denied a license, said: “I am concerned about any actions that could be taken to cause time deadlines again.”
AMCC Executive Director John McMillan stated that the AMCC will only at most void the licenses granted in August to dispensaries and processors, as well as integrated facilities.
In November, the commission will award licenses to cultivators and transporters. McMillan said that even if some companies were able to operate in the future, it wouldn’t be beneficial for patients.
McMillan explained that the Medical Association has a policy that states doctors cannot recommend medical marijuana until at least one license is issued for each category.
Alabama approved a medical marijuana program in 2021. This allows medical cannabis to be treated for about 15 chronic diseases and illnesses.
AMCC granted licenses for the production and distribution of medical cannabis in June. However, inconsistencies with the scoring led to several lawsuits. The licensing process was halted. The AMCC denied several licenses to companies claiming that it was doing much of its work behind closed doors in violation of the Open Meetings Act.
Scorekeeping
After months of legal disputes, and stalled negotiations regarding the evaluation process by the AMCC, new rules for application and licensing were adopted last week.
The rules allow the commissions to retain the scores they gave prior applications, but also give applicants the opportunity to highlight deficiencies. The commission will hold a public hearing where applicants can present their ideas.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys also requested that Anderson bar the scores used for the previous two attempts at awarding the score from being used again in the third attempt.
Ben Espy is the attorney for Bragg Canna, an integrated facility that was denied a license. He argued that the new rule puts the scores in the forefront. There’s no way to take into account any new changes without considering the old scores, he said.
There’s no getting away from them. Espy stated that it is impossible to give a presentation while ignoring the score.
Espy stated that the changes made by the commission to the rules – allowing firms to submit application that exceed 10 MB in size, removing redactions and presentations – if the scores are still used. He stated that keeping old scores is not a good idea if applicants can resubmit their applications with updated material.
Espy stated that “there’s nothing in this rule which requires anyone to take into account the new information found in these 10 megabytes documents.” How are they going do it?” Is the commission going to compare dozens of documents with old documents in order to determine if they are compatible? They won’t do that.”
He said that with the scores “front and centre,” each company would be required to “attack” and compare the scores of other companies in order to justify why they deserve a higher score.
What they’ve done is create a situation where my client is presumed to be bad. Espy explained that he had to refute this presumption and that he didn’t have the tools necessary to do so.
Anderson refused the request, saying that the AMCC “has the discretion to use any matter they want to use” as long as it is in statute.
The story was originally published by Alabama Reflector.
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