In an order issued Monday, April 21, a Montgomery Circuit Court Judge has paused medical cannabis licensing, again. Judge James Anderson ruled Monday afternoon the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission’s (AMCC) use of an emergency rule to award licenses in December 2023 was invalid. Anderson’s order dismantled integrated and dispensary licences the Commission had awarded but not yet issued, resetting the licensing process for those applicants. In a statement issued Tuesday morning, the Commission responded to the injunction.
“The Montgomery Circuit Court entered injunctions that have completely stalled the Commission’s licensing process for the past 16 months,” the Commission said in a media release. “Now that the appellate court has thrown out those injunctions, the circuit court, in a ruling that could have been made at any point during that 16-month stall, has substituted its judgement for that of the Commission and declared invalid a patient-driven Commission rule that was adopted 18 months ago.”
The court’s ruling is a setback for the Commission, and not the first in the four years commissioners have worked on the licensing process since the Darren Wesley “Ato” Hall Compassion Act was signed into law in May 2021. The bill legalized medical cannabis for qualifying conditions, however legal disputes have stalled the issuing of licenses for the operations needed to provide the product to waiting patients.
Ben McNeil, a Montgomery businessman and Board Member for Alabama Always, one of the four applicants protesting the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission’s license award process, issued a statement Tuesday following Anderson’s ruling.
“In November 2023 our counsel objected to the Emergency ‘license award’ Rule drafted by lawyers for the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC),” McNeil said. “We pointed out that the rule they planned to use to award licenses violated the Alabama Administrative Procedure Act (APA).
The Commission’s staff and members ignored us and proceeded on December 12, 2023 to award cannabis licenses using this Rule. However, we note they also failed to follow the ranking system they adopted in this Rule. So how could it have been an ‘emergency’ if they could have just ignored it when they felt like it “Our company was joined by three other companies that filed suit in Montgomery County Circuit Court, challenging both the ‘license award’ rule and the award of the cannabis licenses pursuant to the Rule at the December 2023 meeting.
Due to various legal delay tactics filed by the lawyers for the Commission, it took us 15 months to get a hearing and a decision from the Montgomery County Circuit Court. The Court’s Ruling proves once again that the Commission is unwilling or unable to follow the laws of our State.” The Commission has been bogged down with lawsuits by applicants accusing commissioners of improper deliberations and violations of the state’s Open Meeting Act. Licenses for cultivation, processing, secure transportation and state testing laboratories have already been issued, but applicants for dispensary and integrated facility licenses are still waiting.
The Montgomery court’s Monday order sets the process back yet again. “Make no mistake — powerful interests in this state have made clear that this fight will never be about what is best for Alabama patients who may benefit from medical cannabis,” the Commission’s statement declared. “In reality, today, at least three licensed medical cannabis cultivators are growing cannabis in Alabama. Still focused on patient needs, the Commission will continue to work tirelessly to see that at least one dispensary license is issued as soon as possible.”
The four companies sued the Commission to invalidate the rule and currently seek a licensing process for applicants that follows the minimum requirements of the “Ato” Act. Will Somerville, an attorney for Alabama Always, expressed gratitude for Anderson’s ruling as a step in the right direction. “This is a very positive development. Like the recent ruling by the Court of Civil Appeals, this decision makes clear the AMCC must follow the Administrative Procedure Act when awarding licenses. But these court rulings aren’t enough to completely fix the process.
We still need to address the admitted bias of Commission members and the delays caused by numerous applicants competing for a limited number of licenses. Legislators need to take action this session to fix this broken process so that Alabama patients with seizure disorders and other conditions can access the medical cannabis products they need as quickly as possible,” Somerville said.