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MONTGOMERY, Ala. – An Alabama Senate committee approved a bill Wednesday that would, for the third time, invalidate the most recent round of licenses awarded to companies to grow and sell marijuana in the state.
Sponsored by Sen. Tim Melson, R-Florence, the bill would establish a new process for awarding many licenses, and is an effort, Melson said, to expedite the state’s rollout of medical marijuana that has been plagued by several delays stemming from litigation over the license selection process.
Melson’s bill would only toss out awarded licenses in the integrated facilities category, the most contested and sought-after license that permits companies to grow, cultivate, transport and sell medical marijuana. More specific licenses that only permit holders to execute one part of the process would not be changed.
“It’s taken this long to get this to the patients who are out there that need it, and it’s just time to correct this course and get them something to help them in their illness,” Melson said.
In the proposal, more responsibility in the state’s rollout of medical marijuana would be delegated to the Alabama Securities Commission, and out of the hands of the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission, which Melson said had been unsuccessful in its assigned task.
“We tried to find a solution to getting a product to market, but this goes back to the old joke: you got one job, and you blew it,” Melson said.
“The commission had one mission, and they have not executed it. I think in the best interest of this program, we need to start from scratch, we need to throw (out) every license applicant that received (a license). This bill just wipes the slate clean.”
Under the bill, only companies that had submitted applications to the state for an integrated facilities license by the previous deadline of Dec. 31, 2022 would be considered in the new license award process.
Eligible companies hoping to be considered for what would be the fourth attempt to award licenses would need to submit their applications by July 1 of this year.
The Alabama Securities Commission would then be responsible for making the determination as to whether applicants meet required criteria to be eligible for consideration, after which, the AMCC would score the remaining pool of applicants to determine which five companies are awarded integrated facilities licenses.
“I think we’re aligned in that our main goal is to try to get this out of court and up and running,” said Sen. Davis Sessions, R-Grand Bay, the chair of the committee. “I applaud your work on this Sen. Melson.”
One committee member, Sen. Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, questioned whether the AMCC should be involved in the process at all, arguing that that commission had been “tainted” in its multiple attempts to issue licenses.
“I think once you put it back in the hands of that commission again, I’m afraid that some of those same things are going to happen,” Singleton said.
“There were some people who were very biased with certain firms, there were some who filed lawsuits and bullied the commission into giving them a position. I think that this commission has been tainted thus far.”
Sen. Andrew Jones, R-Centre, asked Melson why he thought his proposal would fare any better than the existing rollout of medical marijuana, and how it would avoid the same fate of being tied up in litigation.
“There’s less bias there,” Melson said, speaking of the Alabama Securities Commission when compared to the AMCC.
“I think they’ll be non-biased, they’ll be objective and look at it in a business manner instead of as a university class project. I think it’ll be strictly based on the quality of the application. It (also) takes away the validity of the previous cases because they’ll all start from scratch and have a fair application.”
The bill ultimately passed in the committee with one dissenting vote from Sen. Larry Stutts, R-Tuscumbia, who told Alabama Daily News after the meeting that he was fiercely against legalizing medical marijuana from the start.
“We’ve spent $12 million on it already and we’re back to square one,” Stutts said, speaking to the two $6 million budget line items included in the 2024 and 2025 budget for AMCC legal expenses.
“I’m not in favor of the whole process; I do not think we have a marijuana deficiency in society. The list of things that it allegedly treats are just bogus. We have plenty of drugs in society, and this will make it more readily available, period.”
