A bi-partisan coalition of 20 Alabama House lawmakers, including Republican House Speaker Mac McCutcheon, have co-sponsored a bill to legalize and regulate medical cannabis. Republican State Rep. Mike Ball introduced the bill, HB 243, on Wednesday. But Ball, who is a former agent with the Alabama Bureau of Investigation, also wants lawmakers to re-up a pair of laws authorizing cannabidiol research and permitting patients with severe seizure disorders to access certain medical cannabis products.

Revelator Coffee Company began serving CBD oil-infused lattes in all four of its Birmingham locations on Monday, and has sold dozens of the drinks in the first two days.

The coffee shop charges $1 to add three drops of CBD oil to a drink. It's featured in the Golden Latte with Relyf CBD oil.

Cannabidiol, or CBD oil, which some people use as a treatment for physical ailments, is made from industrial hemp, which contains a tiny percentage of THC, the intoxicating substance found in marijuana.

CBD oil can also be derived from marijuana and the Alabama Legislature has allowed limited exceptions to the law against marijuana possession for the use of CBD oil.

Alabama has approved applications from 180 farmers who want to grow hemp, and the first crop will be planted by April, said Alabama Department of Agriculture Commissioner Rick Pate.

“The people who have applied are serious farmers,” Pate said. “These are not people who have been growing marijuana.”

A couple of applications that didn’t include the $100 application fee, or were not from qualified farmers, may have been rejected, Pate said.

“There may been one or two who wanted to grow it in their backyard,” Pate said. “That’s not the intent.”

Otherwise, no real farmers were turned down. The deadline to apply was by the start of March.

“We approved all the legitimate applications,” Pate said. “Those notifications are going out this week.”

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has updated a public notice on the legal status of cannabidiol because of a provision in the farm bill that received final passage today in Congress.

The farm bill legalizes industrial hemp beyond pilot programs that Congress authorized in 2014.

Marshall’s office said that means cannabidiol derived from hemp and containing no more than than 0.3 percent THC is legal to produce, sell and possess in Alabama.

A bill that would reduce the penalty for marijuana possession in Alabama is scheduled for consideration on Wednesday by both the House and Senate judiciary committees.

Rep. Patricia Todd, D-Birmingham, and Sen. Dick Brewbaker, R-Montgomery, are the bill sponsors. Todd has tried with similar bills for several years to reduce the penalties for marijuana possession. She believes opposition has faded and is optimistic the bill will pass.

"I haven't talked to one person who is against it," Todd said.

Brewbaker, R-Montgomery, said the bill is intended to keep young people from being saddled with serious criminal records for personal use of pot.