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MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission awarded two cultivator licenses on Thursday, though the decision brought the state no closer to resolving litigation that has currently placed the state’s rollout of medical marijuana on hold.
Some members of the commission voiced a willingness to pursue any and all options to resolving the litigation against the commission, largely from companies that had applied for applications to grow, process and sell medical marijuana but were denied.
“I’m getting concerned about the extent of litigation that just seems to never end while there are people out there who are in desperate need of this medication,” said commission member Loree Skelton, a health care lawyer. “So I’m curious as to are we making any efforts whatsoever towards trying to figure out how to settle this?”
Mark Wilkerson, attorney for the AMCC, told Skelton that at least one applicant that was denied a license and subsequently filed a lawsuit against the commission had filed a motion for the court to appoint a special master to resolve the issue.
“You had a filing in Circuit Court by Alabama Always, perhaps joined by others, that asked the court to appoint a special master, and have asked that special master to have the power to do various things, including essentially (setting) the qualification of the providers,” Wilkerson explained.
Skelton, who has frequently stressed the urgency of getting medical marijuana to patients, said she would be open to such an arrangement.
“I think the rest of the commissioners would agree, anything we can do to try to move this forward and get the medication out there, to get out of court, I would certainly be supportive of that,” she said.
Following a legal update from Wilkerson, which mostly amounted to a legal standstill, the commission, without much fanfare, awarded two cultivator licenses; one to Mobile County-based Pure by Sirmon Farms, which touts having “over 100 years of growing experience” and another to the Dothan-based Blackberrry Farms.
While awarded Thursday, the licenses are not expected to be actually issued for about two weeks, after which the two companies will be legally permitted to start growing medical marijuana, as have the seven other companies already awarded cultivator licenses.
Once grown, however, the cultivators will be forced to put the product into what AMCC char Rex Vaughn described as a “freeze mode” until the matter related to integrator and dispensary licenses is resolved in court.
“Today we were able to add two cultivator licenses because we’re not maxed out on the number of cultivators yet, we can have up to 12,” Vaughn told members of the press after the meeting.
Sam Blakemore, a pharmacist and member of the commission, told Alabama Daily News after the meeting that like Skelton, he too would be open to any option that sees medical marijuana reach patients.
That said, the prospects of a special master being appointed by the court, he believed, was slim.
“I think we should consider all options to get people their medicine; that being said, an agreement to a special master would likely need 100% agreement of all the parties in those downstream categories of dispensaries and integrated licenses,” Blakemore said.
“And the likelihood of all applicants agreeing to a special master is not high. Personally, I believe as a commission we’ve tried our best.”
Still, Blakemore told ADN that he would always “keep all options on the table,” and that he still held out hope that at least one additional classification of license could be issued by the end of the year.
“Hopefully we can at least get some dispensaries up and going before the end of the year,” he said.
“If we can just get one dispensary license issued, I think that will relieve a lot of stress for the patients in need. They’d likely have to travel, because there would only be 3 to 6 dispensaries open. But that is better than where we’re at currently.”
