Alabama’s stalled rollout of Medical Marijuana hurting patients, chief advocate warns
Urgency Intensifies for Medical Cannabis Availability Amid Legal Stalemate in Alabama.
A chief advocate for medical marijuana stressed a sense of urgency Thursday during a meeting of the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission in Montgomery, telling the commission that by the hundreds, Alabamians with medical conditions that could be helped with medical cannabis are continuing to suffer.
“It has really broken my heart, I receive at least 45 phone calls a day from people who are in dire need,” said Amanda Taylor, among the most vocal advocates for the legalization of medical marijuana in the state.
“They want help, (and) there’s no physical way I can help them as I stick to the laws.”
The use of medical marijuana was first legalized in 2021 with the passage of Senate Bill 46, and a limited number of licenses to grow and sell medical marijuana were first awarded last year.
The actual issuance of said licenses still remains stalled to this day, however, due to a flurry of lawsuits from companies that were not awarded a license, most of which argue that the selection process was inherently flawed and was not conducted in accordance with state law.
Thursday’s meeting of the AMCC did not bring the state any closer to making medical marijuana available to patients, with the matter still tied up in court.
None are more frustrated over the slowdown caused by legal challenges than commission members themselves. Commission chair, Rex Vaughn, told Alabama Daily News that Thursday’s meeting was largely inconsequential, and intended to address what he called “housekeeping measures” to better adhere to state law as matters play out in court.
Vaughn said that the continued delays were “tremendously frustrating,” but the commission’s hands were largely tied while the matter is being settled in court. With that said, he suggested that there was reason to be hopeful that a resolution was near.
“I think every day we draw closer to the dam breaking and maybe us seeing a light at the end of the tunnel,” Vaughn said after the meeting.
“Litigation we know is always going to be in our wheelhouse; we don’t like it, but every state that is doing what we’re doing with medical cannabis has endured the same thing, so we’re not out of the ordinary.”
The seven companies issues a medical cannabis cultivator license have already started growing medical marijuana, but once the product is ready, they intend to put it into a “freeze mode,” Vaughn explained, in anticipation of the commission being able to issue integrator and dispensary licenses, which are currently stalled by a Montgomery court.
Taylor, herself a medical marijuana patient, that many Alabamians continue to suffer while medical marijuana remains unavailable.
“Since the litigation, three people have committed suicide, and that was just not acceptable,” she told the commission.
“They keep asking me where’s the compassion that the state has assured me, and my answer to them is I will always fight my hardest, and I’m with a group that intends to keep on fighting until what’s morally right is done.”
Taylor has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a degenerative neurological condition that can cause seizures. Medical cannabis has proven extremely effective at reducing seizures, and does not carry with it some of the more potentially harmful side effects of alternative treatments.
“The weight of this has become so unbearable to me; 45 phone calls in a day from people who are at the worst of their worst,” Taylor continued.
Mike Ball, a former lawmaker who was a key advocate in the state’s eventual legalization of medical marijuana, had also attended the meeting, and shared a few words regarding the need to expedite the state’s rollout of medical cannabis.
“It’s very important to get this industry up and operating in a transparent manner, but the purpose of it is people who are suffering who can be helped, and there are untold numbers of the,” Ball said.
“We are just starting with this, and I’m really looking forward to getting these knots untied and getting this underway so people can be helped. That’s what this is about.”
Brittany Peters, a spokesperson for the AMCC, told ADN that around 1,000 plants are currently being cultivated across the state between the seven cultivator license holders, and that about 100 plants have already been harvested.
Once the matter is finally settled in court, Vaughn told ADN that he predicted medical cannabis could reach patients as soon as in two months.
