Alabama Sen. Tim Melson, R- Florence, has filed a bill that would take some licensing powers away from the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission and give them to a private entity.
Established in 2022, the AMCC has awarded licenses three times, in June, August, and December of last year, to integrated companies that will cultivate, process, and dispense medical cannabis products.
The commission rescinded the June and August awards because of problems with its procedures and ongoing litigation.
“It’s been three years and patients hadn’t been able to try it, and something needs to be done and to move the through the needle,” Melson said.
“I mean, if you have something for three years and you haven’t been able to do your duty, somebody needs to step in and rectify that.”
Under SB72, the private consultant “must be a nationally recognized entity with expertise in financial auditing and managerial consulting” and have offices “in at least 15 states.”
The existing commission would have until Oct. 1 to hire someone.
This bill would also delete a provision requiring the commission to hold an investigatory hearing after the denial of a license.
It would establish that the denial or granting of a license “is final and conclusive and any court efforts to prevent the commission from issuing a license or invalidating a license previously awarded would be immediately appealable to the Alabama Supreme Court.”
Melson stressed the need for a uniform rating system by which to judge company applications.
“I’ve got the grading reports in front of me and if you look at it, some people rated one of the organizations number one, the top potential applicant,” he said.
“And somebody else rated it the 29th best choice…So, if you look at the same application and your discrepancy is 10 to 20 positions apart, it looks to me like either the instructions weren’t clear, the ability to follow the instructions wasn’t done, and there was no obvious reason why the same applicant using the same criteria would be rated so far apart.”
He said he is “ready just to find somebody that can rate them, and if possible, redact any identifying information about them unless it’s absolutely necessary for an objective judging of where they belong in the system.”
Only applicants from the original Dec. 31, 2022, application deadline will be considered for the licenses, according to the bill.
And it would increase the number of integrated facility licenses that may be granted in the state from five to seven licenses, as a result of population growth.
“It’s nothing personal,” Melson said.
“I’m not saying anything was done illegally, but it wasn’t done by any means…. So, if we could find somebody like Moody’s or another organization to rate them objectively, let’s do it.”
Melson filed a bill relating to the same issue last session that didn’t make it out of the Senate. He said he is more optimistic that this version, which he described as an “entirely different bill,” will have more success.
“We didn’t really try to move that bill last year,” he said.
“We just tried to let them know that we’re watching and get the system aware and possibly move the needle. A year later it hasn’t. So, patients have gone another year without having the ability to try. And I think it’s just time to buy that solution.”
The bill is currently pending action from the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Conservation, and Forestry.
The Compassion Act, passed by Alabama lawmakers in May 2021, made Alabama one of more than 30 states to authorize medical marijuana.
Patients who receive a recommendation from a certified doctor and receive a medical cannabis card from the AMCC will be able to buy medical marijuana products at licensed dispensaries.
The products can be used to treat a wide range of conditions, including chronic pain, weight loss and nausea from cancer, depression, panic disorder, epilepsy, muscle spasms caused by disease or spinal cord injuries, PTSD, and others.
Products can include gummies, tablets, capsules, tinctures, patches, oils, and other forms allowed by the legislation.
“It’s been three years and patients hadn’t been able to try it, and something needs to be done and to move the through the needle,” Sen. Tim Melson said. Read More
