Alabama's Medical Cannabis delays continue amid license transparency lawsuits
Three Years On: Legal Battle Delays Access to Medical Cannabis in Alabama.
It has been three years since Alabama lawmakers legalized medical cannabis in our state, but even now, a year after licenses were first awarded, people can't get a prescription for the medication.
That's because those not awarded licenses are pushing for transparency, filing lawsuits to better understand why some businesses were awarded licenses over others.
People who want access to medical cannabis will continue to wait.
Alabama Always, one of more than two dozen applicants for an integrator license, argues the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission isn't being fair in the process.
"Nothing we’ve seen in the investigative hearing process satisfies the administrative procedure act. Frankly, that’s why this process has taken so long," said attorney Will Somerville. "They need to make it so applicants can challenge each other’s qualifications."
Somerville said for example if a license was awarded to someone who didn't qualify, "I should be able to point that out, go to a hearing with them and challenge them, make them put up or shut up, if they can satisfy the arguments of the act."
Tuesday in court, Judge James Anderson heard arguments during a hearing that lasted over two hours. He said he would grant the motion filed for a temporary restraining order and deny the commission's motion to dismiss.
"He said he was also inclined to grant us some discovery relative to Trulieve, one of the applicants, so we think that’s a good start to getting some discovery," said Somerville. He added the push to have a temporary restraining order was wanted in case the current stay gets dissolved.
Somerville argued that AMCC's process doesn't comply with the administrative procedure act.
"The problem we see is that from the very beginning, the commission's rules didn’t follow, didn’t satisfy, didn’t comply with the administrative procedure act," said Somerville. "At the end of the day, if due process isn’t satisfied, then you’re going to have people complaining they didn’t get due process and that’s going to delay the process even further and that’s what we are trying to avoid."
Somerville believes if the process isn't fixed moving forward, there will continue to be problems.
"We want this process to move along as quick as possible," he said.
ABC 33/40 reached out to AMCC for comment on Tuesday's hearing. We received the following response:
the Court has yet to issue any orders from today’s hearing and we will not comment further on pending litigation. However, I can assure you that the Commission is working everyday to carry out the provisions of the law and AMCC’s rules to provide medical cannabis to Alabama patients who need it.
