Alabama Medical Marijuana Firm asks Appeals Court to block Regulators from using old scores to award licenses

By Alander Rocha, Alabama Reflector

A cannabis company denied an Alabama medical marijuana licence asked the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals not to allow a state commission to use prior results when awarding licenses.

Specialty Medical Products of Wetumpka, an Alabama-based medical cannabis company that was denied a licence for an integrated facility in October, claimed in a motion that the criteria that evaluators use are not known to the applicants. They also claimed that the commission did not inform the applicants on what criteria their application would be evaluated on and that this process had been improperly adopted.

The motion said that the application guide does not specify the “minimum criteria” for each exhibit. The application guide does not state the criteria necessary to “exceed” or “thoroughly address” that minimum criteria.

Alabama Always, a company that was denied a license, and the company are both involved in ongoing lawsuits.

Montgomery Circuit Judge James Anderson denied on November 3, a temporary restraining to prevent the commission to use scores that were previously used in the first and second attempts to award medical cannabis licenses.

Anderson’s order to deny the temporary restraining orders did not give a specific reason. In previous hearings, the judge stated that the commission had the right to decide whether or not it would use controversial scores provided by University of South Alabama.

USA sent in evaluators to review the initial license applications. The Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC), after the first license award, put a stop to the process due to several “inconsistencies”. These “inconsistencies”, in the scoring of the applications would have resulted in “catastrophic results” if these licenses had been issued.

The companies requested that the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals weigh in on whether a temporary restraining should have been imposed. The order would have prohibited the commission from using any rules that were not in compliance with the Alabama Administrative Procedure Act. The commission also claims the rules are in excess of its authority under the medical cannabis law.

Will Somerville said in a statement that the commission should not be allowed to use the scores because the system seems designed to give licenses (to) applicants who cannot grow cannabis within 60 days as required by law.

In 2021, the law signed by President Obama requires that integrated facilities and cultivators “demonstrate their ability to begin cultivation of cannabis within sixty days of notification of approval.”

According to Specialty Medical Products’ motion, the application asked simply if companies were able to begin cultivation within 60-days, and answered “yes” or a “no” rather than “demonstrate”.

He said that “dispensing with scores is the best method to ensure patients in Alabama, who can benefit greatly from medical cannabis, get the help and support they need.”

In October , the AMCC reset the medical marijuana licensing process. It said that all 90 applicants would be eligible for a license. The commission reversed all licenses granted and denied at an meeting on August 10,. This set the stage for third-round licenses under regulations adopted during a previous commission meeting.

Rex Vaughn, the chairman of the meeting, said that the commissioners have full discretion when evaluating all 90 applicants.

New rules allow applicants to challenge deficiencies in their applications and score results. The public will be able to attend the presentations. The public will be able to attend the presentations.

Brittany Peters said that the presentation will continue on schedule.

The presentations will be held between November 27th and December 8th. You can find the schedule for the presentation here.

Originally published by The Alabama Reflector.