Marijuana bill in committee in Alabama Senate

On May 17, 2021, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed into law the Darren Wesley "Ato" Hall Compassion Act. Alabama became the 36th state to allow for a medical cannabis program for patients with a qualifying illness. Unfortunately, that program never got off the ground despite the state spending millions of dollars.

On Wednesday, February 26, 2025, the Senate Agriculture and Forestry Committee was mulling legislation designed to fix the legislation they passed four years ago.

Senator Tim Melson (R-Florence) is the sponsor of Senate Bill 72,

The 2021 legislation set a hard cap on the number of licenses the state can award in the vertically integrated category. The integrator license allows that business to cultivate, process, transport, and sell medical marijuana. The other licenses limit the possessor to just one of those categories. Integrators are capped at five with one reserved for a minority. The problem with that is 36 applied. Three times the state made license awards – each time failed applicants sued to block the issuing of the licenses. Five business entities have license awards given to them in December of 2023. At this point, no one knows whether they will ever be allowed to grow medical marijuana or not.

SB72 would raise that cap to seven and attempts to limit the legal appeals rights of applicants who are not chosen. The bill would require the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission, (AMCC) to hire a consultant to choose from the pool of applicants previous submitted. This would render the determination by the consultant as final.

At the public hearing, Senator Melson introduced a substitute that would essentially restart the entire licensing process from "scratch." Current license awards would be vacated, and all 36 applicants would reapply.

Melson accused the AMCC of "incompetence."

"I don't think there's anyway, unless you have consistency of all five that you can feel like its been a non-tainted process and either we didn't make the rules clear in which I believe they were at least clear enough or they did not follow them to get the candidates," said Melson. "I am not going to try and figure it out I am going to try and find a way to move it forward."

SB72 would require the Commission to hire a consultant. The consultant would decide who gets the awards. Any appeal would bypass circuit court and go straight to the appellate courts. The commission cannot deny a license that is chosen by the independent consultant. The substitute increases the license cap to 8 with 2 reserved for minorities.

Melson asserted that population growth in the state has been substantial enough that the state could support 8 vertically integrated marijuana operations. The AMCC would not even get to pick the consultant. Sen. Melson called for a request for proposal on the raters and named three different state agency directors outside of the commission to choose the raters.

This bill is highly controversial even within the medical cannabis industry.

Amanda Taylor, who has several debilitating illnesses including muscular sclerosis said that SB72 will only cause more delays for persons with a qualifying medical condition and will lead to another round of litigation.

Ms. Taylor asked that the existing commission be allowed to complete its investigative hearings and proceed with the program.

Antoine Mordican is the owner of Native Black Cultivation, who holds a marijuana cultivator license; but has no outlet to sell his crop because the litigants are keeping the dispensary licenses from being issued.

Mordican spoke on behalf of all independent license holders, who have paid license fees for two years with zero revenue. Mordican is strongly opposed to SB72, which he claims threatens the livelihood of independent business owners.

Sterling Stoudenmire is the CEO of Sustainable Alabama. He is one of the two (the other being Flowerwood) who were awarded a vertically integrated license in June 2023, again in August of 2023, and most recently in the December 2023 do-over.

"As long as there are limits on licensees there is going to be litigation," Stoudenmire said. "How do we get past litigation?"

He referenced Florida's model in allowing litigation to not interfere with the program's ability to operate. Stoudenmire said that the plaintiffs are coming up with new and creative ways to assault the process despite not have won any round (or in the case of Alabama Always LLC – even coming close).

Stoudenmire said that passage of SB72 will only cause further delay by restarting the entire program.

Christy Crow is the head of CRC Cultivation, which was awarded a cultivation license. She testified that SB72 will only create more litigation and further delay access to patients. She states that the process should be allowed to work.

Ray French Osity stated that his company has already spent millions of dollars building out their facility and they have "a state-of-the-art purpose-built greenhouse, not just a refit old greenhouse trying to look like what we are doing. We have grown hemp in this greenhouse, and we know we can do it."

Joey Robertson at Wagon Trail Med won a vertical license on the third round of awards in Dec. 2023. He is opposed to a do-over. He expressed hope that the Civil Court of Appeals will render a verdict that will allow license holders to operate.

Stan Morris is one of the owners of Creekleaf Wellness in Birmingham. He encouraged people to have faith in our courts.

"Justice moves slow, but it moves," he stated – expressing his belief that the justice system will be the fastest way out of this.

Warren Cobb is also with Sustainable Alabama.

Cobb stated that he was happy with winning all three times but believes that the commission got it right on the third time.

"I am sure everybody that spoke against it got a license," responded Sen. Melson. "If they (the Commission) got it right then it was a fluke because some individuals did not know how to score them, or they were just incompetent in scoring or they had a mission or a point to prove. I am not saying we can't live with it. I am sure they would like to because they all got licenses; but if I am one of those that did not get one, I would continue to tie you up in court til hell froze over".

Senator David Sessions (R-Red Bay) chairs the Ag & Forestry Committee.

He recognized Amanda Taylor, who keeps working despite her disabilities and medical conditions, and stated this is why we are here.

Sessions reminded everyone that he tried to drop a bill last year and it was met with the same opposition. Sessions said that he believes that this will stay tied up in court without a legislative fix.

SB72 was carried over to the next meeting of the Committee on March 5.

Chey Garrigan is a lobbyist, realtor, and the founder and President of the Alabama Cannabis Industry Association. She is a native of St. Clair County.

Opinions expressed in the Alabama Gazette are the opinions and viewpoints of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Alabama Gazette staff, advertisers, and/ publishers