Medical cannabis is on the verge of being delivered to patients in Alabama, because the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission has finally decided to follow the law.
On Thursday, the AMCC approved an order granting dispensary licenses to four applicants—RJK Holdings LLC, CCS of Alabama LLC, GP6 Wellness LLC, and Yellowhammer Medical Dispensaries LLC—the final step in what has been a five-year slog through bureaucracy, in-fighting, legal battles and ineptitude to getting medical cannabis to patients.
Almost all of it, as evidenced by Thursday’s action by the AMCC, was self-inflicted.
We know this by the fact that there is so little pushback on the awarded licenses. Only one denied applicant is challenging the ruling, and that challenge will be taken up in a separate hearing and dealt with according to the law.
If only this had been the conduct of the AMCC from the start.
We wouldn’t be celebrating, some five years after the medical cannabis legislation passed, the approval of a small fraction of dispensaries available under the law. The integrated facilities, which would have the authority to grow, process and dispense if we could ever get them licensed, are still mired in litigation and hearings. That means Alabama can have, at most, just 12 of the potential 37 dispensaries operational anytime soon.
Why?
Because despite all of the moaning and whining from the AMCC and its attorneys, they simply refused to follow the established process in this state for awarding a limited number of licenses to multiple applicants. They failed to do it even when told by judges to do it. They failed to do it even when it was obvious that the lawsuits would continue until they did.
They failed to do it until it became absolutely clear from every court in this state that they would have no other option.
Thursday’s action was the direct result of that.
In less than a year, when following the laws of the state, as laid out in the Alabama Administrative Procedures Act, the Commission was able to almost entirely resolve the arguments over dispensary licenses. And did so in such a manner that their decisions are well documented, clear and available for the record in any court challenge.
That’s a far cry from the absolute farce that began this process a few years ago. Do you remember that? The AMCC commissioners holed up in a backroom selecting license winners in secret? And using some weird, subjective formula cooked up out of thin air.
It was like a how-to guide on political corruption. It screamed that the fix was in for certain applicants.
And so the applicants screamed back. Through lawsuits.
Instead of properly fixing the process and following the long established guidelines of the AAPA, the AMCC and its attorneys tried another out-of-their-backside approach: A ranking system.
More lawsuits resulted.
All of this, of course, took months and months and months to get through. Each step a fight. All of it slowing the process to a crawl, as the AMCC went time and again to higher courts seeking a bailout for its flawed actions.
It never got one.
Finally, a few months ago, when it became clear that this process was never going to move forward unless the law was followed, the AMCC did so. Millions of taxpayer dollars later, and with not a single cannabis gummy in the hands of a patient, someone over there decided to crack open the AAPA guide book and give it a shot.
And whattaya know?
An administrative law judge heard the contested case regarding the six applicant companies vying for dispensary licenses. He allowed the applicants to present their cases, challenge each other, call witnesses and present evidence. In the end, he issued a 106-page ruling outlining why four companies should receive the licenses. Only one of the two denied companies has indicated it plans to contest that decision. If that’s the case, there will be another hearing for that challenge and a final decision made within the next few months.
Clean. Concise. Inarguable. Fair.
That’s all anyone who has challenged the actions of the AMCC for these past few years has asked for. Because that’s what we should all expect.
The companies vying for integrated licenses will start their AAPA process in a few weeks. It will take longer, because there are more applicants and more lawyers and more money at stake. But in the end, if the rules are followed, there should be a solid, foundational record in place that would withstand any legal challenge and give the general public some assurance that the laws were followed.
It will be a lengthy process, but I bet it won’t take five years.
