Alabama Regulators Announce Plans to Issue Medical Cannabis Licenses in December

In its latest announcement on Oct. 26, the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC) revealed the dates when regulators will re-issue the state’s medical cannabis business licenses.

The AMCC will award cultivator, processor, dispensary, secure transporter and testing lab licenses Dec. 1 and integrated facility licenses—which allow licensees to operate a cultivation and processing facility as well as five dispensaries—Dec. 12.

Regulators initially awarded the first batch of 21 medical cannabis business licenses in June, but then voted June 16 to pause the licensing process while the AMCC sought an independent review of all scoring data due to “the discovery of potential inconsistencies,” according to a press release from the commission.

Days later, a rejected applicant, Alabama Always LLC, filed a lawsuit in Montgomery County Circuit Court requesting a temporary restraining order on licensing due to its own concerns over the licensing process.

Additional litigation followed, including a lawsuit filed by multistate operator Verano Holdings, which was initially awarded an Alabama medical cannabis license in June before regulators ultimately voided the licensing process.

In its Oct. 26 announcement, the AMCC said it had rescinded its previous medical cannabis business license awards and denials in order to comply with emergency rules adopted at its previous meeting.

“This action paves a path for us to award business licenses by the end of the year,” AMCC Chairman Rex Vaughn said. “We have an aggressive timeline in front of us, but we feel that it is of the utmost importance that we get this industry started in an expeditious manner for both the applicants and patients.”

RELATED: Alabama Plans to Award Medical Cannabis Business Licenses by End of 2023 as Verano Lawsuit Dismissed

New procedures outlined in the AMCC’s emergency rules retain the previous score results but give applicants the opportunity to make a presentation to the commission regarding matters identified in their application and final scores. The presentations will be open to the public and will occur on the following dates, according to the AMCC’s announcement:

• Nov. 27, 2023 – Cultivator and State Testing Laboratory Applicants
• Nov. 28, 2023 – Secure Transporter and Processor Applicants
• Nov. 29, 2023 – Dispensary Applicants
• Dec. 4-8, 2023 – Integrated Facility Applicants
  

The AMCC started accepting public comments Oct. 27 in favor of or opposed to issuing a license to a particular applicant. Comments must be made electronically on the AMCC’s website, and the deadline for all comments is Nov. 26, 2023.

The emergency rules also give applicants a chance to respond to preliminary pass/fail items identified by regulators, as well as submit exhibits that were not previously filed due to file size limitations in the online application portal.

The AMCC’s new procedures will also limit the information that may be redacted from the applications.

The commission tapped the University of South Alabama to coordinate the application review process and recruit evaluators to review all 90 applications received. The AMCC has since published information about the evaluators’ qualifications, training and resource materials.

“The commission’s rules are clear that the commission has full discretion as to license award decisions,” Vaughn said of the AMCC’s new procedures. “Rule 538-x-3-.12 states in part that, ‘the commission remains the primary decisionmaker with regard to licensing and has authority to act independently of any third-party evaluation and recommendation.’”