Trulieve Awarded Alabama Cannabis License; Verano, INSA, TheraTrue Left Out

Alabama cannabis regulators again went off script during their Dec. 12 awards process for five vertically integrated facility licenses in the state’s forthcoming medical market.

The Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC) members took it upon themselves to rank 33 qualifying applicants for the state’s most competitive licensing category during their meeting Tuesday only to omit two applicants that had higher scores than those awarded. One of the beneficiaries was Trulieve AL Inc.

The state’s integrated facilities licenses authorize companies to cultivate, process, transport and sell cannabis with the rights to open five medical dispensaries.

Tuesday’s awards included the following winners:

• Trulieve Alabama Inc. (“minority” applicant)
• Sustainable Alabama LLC
• Wagon Trail Med-Serv LLC
• Flowerwood Medical Cannabis LLC
• Specialty Medical Products of Alabama LLC
  

“I thank all of the integrated facility applicants for their diligent efforts throughout this lengthy licensing process,” AMCC Chairman Rex Vaughn said. “I cannot emphasize strongly enough how much I appreciate the commitment and hard work of each commissioner as we have navigated through this phase of the program. The result of these efforts has led to the award of licenses to entities who the commission has determined are well-suited to serve patients through Alabama’s medical cannabis program.”

This was the AMCC’s third attempt to award the licenses. Winners included in at least one of the previous two attempts that were left out of Tuesday’s awards process are Verano Alabama LLC, Insa Alabama LLC, TheraTrue Alabama LLC and Southeast Cannabis Co. LLC.

The AMCC members initially approved license winners in June 2023 via a blind, third-party scoring process in which Chicago-based Verano Holdings captured the highest score, while TheraTrue, Southeast Cannabis and Insa were the next highest-ranked applicants. But regulators voided those awards over “potential inconsistencies” in the scoring and attempted to re-award the licenses in do-over on Aug. 10. Verano was passed over in that do-over.

Lawsuits from unsuccessful applicants and from Verano were filed. And claims that commission members violated the state’s Open Meetings Act led to a pause in the process altogether until a settlement led to an emergency rule adopted by the AMCC in October, allowing the commissioners to move forward with the current process.

But rather than rely on a blind, third-party scoring system, nine of the 12 commissioners present at Tuesday’s meeting scored the 33 integrated facility applicants and then voted on which ones to award. This came after they offered an opportunity to these applicants to make presentations before the commission during a four-day window last week.

AMCC General Counsel Justin Aday reminded commissioners Tuesday that previous scoring results—including the initial third-party scoring as well as the recalculated results from the August re-do attempt—had no bearing on their rankings that day.  

“Your licensing decisions are being made without regard to previous scoring that was before you, as agreed in the litigation settlement and memorialized in the order entered by the Montgomery County Circuit Court,” he said.

Aday also reminded the commissioners that an applicant’s failure to make a presentation before the commission last week does not preclude them from being considered for a license award.

In addition, at least one of the five integrated facility licenses in Alabama had to be awarded to a “minority” applicant whose business entities are at least 51% owned by an individual or individuals of African American, Native American, Asian or Hispanic descent.

AMCC members didn’t score any of the 11 minority applicants in their top five on Tuesday, so they decided to vote on an award for one of those applicants first.

But a motion to award Southeast Cannabis Co.—the highest scoring minority applicant—failed via a 5-4 vote. Instead, the AMCC members voted, 5-4, to award Trulieve Alabama LLC the award.

Southeast Cannabis was previously included in both of the previous two licensing attempts, while Florida-based Trulieve was not.

Southeast Cannabis originally ranked third overall in the blind, third-party scoring results from earlier this year while Trulieve had ranked 18th. In the commissioners’ scoring from Tuesday’s meeting, Southeast Cannabis ranked 10th and Trulieve ranked 12th.

There was no discussion among the five commissioners who voted to deviate from their body’s own rankings.

The next three awards on Tuesday went in order of the commissioners’ top-three scoring applicants: Sustainable Alabama, Wagon Trail and Flowerwood Medical. Sustainable Cannabis and Flowerwood have been included in all three licensing attempts now, but Flowerwood was a first-time award winner.

With one license left to award on Tuesday, Jemmstone Alabama LLC was the next highest scoring applicant on the AMCC’s own list. But zero of the nine members present offered a motion to vote on awarding Jemmstone a license.

Instead, the commissioners went to the next applicant on their list and voted, 8-1, to award Specialty Medical Products of Alabama LCC the fifth and final license. Specialty Medical Products originally ranked 33rd of 38 qualifying applicants during the blind, third-party scoring process earlier this year.

Specialty Medical Products CEO Ray French told AL.com his company has experience producing CBD edibles and is ready to start manufacturing THC products for the state’s medical cannabis market.

“We’re so proud on behalf of the commission for taking the time to actually get to know the applicants and really consider this,” said French, whose company was passed over by the AMCC in the previous two licensing attempts. “I’m so proud for all of our staff and employees and everybody that’s worked so hard, and also for the other people that were awarded. We’re looking forward to helping build an industry here in Alabama.”

The integrated facility licenses awarded Tuesday were just one of six licensing categories. Earlier this month, the AMCC issued 20 licenses for the other five non-vertical categories, including seven permits for cultivation, four for processing, four for dispensaries, four for secure transport, and one for a testing laboratory.

RELATED: Alabama Awards 20 Medical Cannabis Licenses in Yet Another Do-Over

The five applicants awarded integrated facility licenses Tuesday have 14 days to submit their $50,000 licensing fee. And any applicant denied a license has 14 days to request an investigative hearing before the commission for reconsideration.

Alabama Always LLC, an unsuccessful integrated facility applicant in all three licensing attempts that was ranked 11th overall by the commission on Tuesday, indicated via attorney William Somerville that it will “assess what happened and regroup and see what to do,” according to AL.com.

After getting closed out of the first licensing attempt in June, Alabama Always sued the AMCC over the awards process after completing the buildout of a $4.5 million cultivation and processing facility. In the lawsuit, Alabama Always argued the commission “abdicated its duties to various third parties and then relied blindly on the information returned by the third parties.”

On the other end, Verano filed a lawsuit in August against the AMCC for veering from the blind, third-party scoring. The company argued that an unbiased scoring process should trump that of the commissioners’ “personal opinions,” but that lawsuit was later dismissed.

Cannabis Business Times reached out to Verano for comment after the company was left out of the most recent licensing awards.