Resolution to Alabama’s stalled medical marijuana rollout could occur in ‘next few weeks’

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama’s stalled rollout of medical marijuana, which has been held up in court for well over a year due to litigation from companies denied licenses, may come to a resolution as soon as a few weeks, according to one member of the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission, the entity tasked with awarding licenses.

Since the AMCC awarded its first round of licenses in mid-2023 to grow and sell medical marijuana, some companies not awarded licenses have filed lawsuits against the commission, many of which argue the award process to not be transparent or fair.

Those lawsuits were litigated in Montgomery County Circuit Court for months under Judge James Anderson, who last October, appointed retired Judge Eugene Reese as a mediator in the case to help parties reach a settlement.

Sam Blakemore, a pharmacist and member of the commission, praised Reese for his work in mediating the case, and told Alabama Daily News Monday that he anticipated an agreement between all parties soon.

“I really do expect there to be an agreement in place in the next few weeks,” Blakemore told ADN. “… I have hope. It’s been a long four years trying to get this up and running. I see some light at the end of the tunnel.”

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The mediation process was also described as going well by Mark Wilkerson, an attorney for the AMCC, during the commission’s Jan. 9 meeting. Wilkerson said updates on the mediation could come in a matter of days, and described the process as “pretty fast moving.”

“I will say I think progress has been made generally; Judge Reese has done a good job at pushing that process, communicating with everybody,” Wilkerson said.

“We’ve certainly made it clear that our goal in this is to achieve the objectives that the Legislature has given you to have an outcome that involves the product being available to Alabama patients.”

So far, licenses to grow marijuana have been issued to nine companies. The delay is entirely due to the commission’s integrator and dispensary licenses – the only licenses that permit the actual sale of medical marijuana – being contested, effectively blocking patients’ access to medical marijuana products.

The Alabama Legislature first legalized a limited number of medical marijuana products in 2021, and the AMCC first awarded licenses in June of 2023. The process became immediately stalled, however, after errors were discovered in the commission’s scoring data it used to award licenses, as well as by the flurry of lawsuits that followed.