MONTGOMERY, Ala. — After receiving considerable pushback from potential licensees last week, it’s unclear when a bill to restart a portion of Alabama’s long-delayed rollout of medical marijuana will get a committee vote.
Sponsored by Sen. Tim Melson, R-Florence, Senate Bill 72 would take some of the authority away from the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission, the entity created and tasked with awarding and issuing licenses to grow and sell medical marijuana, by allowing an independent group to reevaluate and select applicants to issue licenses to.
“I would like to just start from scratch, throw the licenses out,” Melson said last week during the public hearing for his bill in the Senate Agriculture and Forestry Committee. “I’d like to get an independent group to reevaluate the candidates, some nationally-known rater.”
The hearing saw a number of individuals speak out against the measure – most of them the owners of companies previously awarded a license by the AMCC – who all argued restarting the process would only delay it further.
Melson on Monday told Alabama Daily News he didn’t know when the committee might vote on the bill.
Committee member and Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, last week said he supports the idea of restarting the process, and would support Melson’s bill advancing through committee.
“I support him in the efforts to get it restarted, I’m not sure if his bill is the solution; however, I’m willing to vote to get this bill out of committee to get to a point where we can try to work on a viable solution,” Singleton said.
“I support him in the effort and in the spirit of getting it done, I’m just not sure what he has is going to make it work or not.”
Melson was the sponsor of the original legislation back in 2021 that legalized medical marijuana known as the state, dubbed the Compassion Act. While the AMCC has awarded licenses to companies to grow and sell medical marijuana, it’s been halted from actually issuing said licenses – specifically dispensary and integrated facilities licenses, the only licenses that allow the actual sale of medical marijuana – by courts who are still considering lawsuits filed against the state by companies not awarded licenses.
One member of the AMCC, Sam Blakemore, told ADN Thursday that he was conflicted on Melson’s bill, suggesting that a resolution to the litigation stalling the rollout of medical marijuana could be imminent, and that restarting the process could cause significant delays.
“Without Sen. Melson sponsoring the original bill, we wouldn’t even be here, and so he’s done excellent work just getting us to this point as far as the original Compassion Act,” Blakemore said.
“But it’s one of those situations where I think we’re so close to having this thing done, I would hate to have to restart now. The bill in its current iteration, I’m afraid that you’re going to have to restart too much and it’s going to elicit even more lawsuits and more time. We’re just so far along at this point.”
Blakemore’s sentiments were shared by Amanda Taylor, who spoke out against the bill during Wednesday’s public hearing. Among the most vocal advocates for medical marijuana in the state, Taylor has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a degenerative neurological condition that can cause seizures and is highly treatable with medical marijuana.
“While this may appear to be a reasonable action on the surface, in reality, it is a move that will create further delays, more litigation, and more suffering for Alabama patients who have already waited too long,” Taylor said.
Alabama Daily News asked Melson after the hearing what his proposal would do differently to prevent the rollout of medical marijuana from being tied up in court as it is today. He said that language in his bill would allow for licenses to be issued immediately upon being decided, and that any legal pushback would be deliberated in the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals.
“It could get tied up in court, but it goes straight to the Court of Civil Appeals, and they go ahead and issue the license and let those people proceed if they so desire, so that would get them further down the road,” Melson told ADN.
“Somethings’ got to give, patients are hurting and it’s time to get it to them. Four years, I mean they’re talking about it’s moving at a pace; I’ve seen a slug with salt on its back move faster than they have.”