Senate sponsors trying to resuscitate stalled medical cannabis bill

April 26, 2025 – MONTGOMERY, AL – Alabama medical cannabis supporters are working on compromise legislation that they hope will end the legal deadlock between cannabis applicants that has effectively shut down the state's medical cannabis program for almost three years now.

Senate Bill 72 (SB72) is sponsored by State Senator Tim Melson (R-Florence) who also sponsored the original Alabama medical cannabis bill that passed back in 2021. To date not a single person has been able to legally obtained any medical cannabis due to the legal maneuvers.

SB72 has a new substitute version that sponsors hope will resolve many of the objections to the bill as introduced.

SB72 increases the maximum number of integrator licenses from five to ten. An integrator license allows a business equity to grow, process, transport, and dispense medical cannabis. The other licenses limit the holder to just one component of the industry. 36 business entities applied for the five integrator licenses the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission were allowed to award.

The latest substitute version of SB72 would allow the Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC) to issue up to ten (10) integrated cannabis licenses. Each integrated license holder will initially be restricted to three (3) dispensaries, with the ability to apply to the Commission for more dispensaries.

Notably the bill would strip the AMCC of the ability to award the licenses or pick the consultant who would make the awards.

Under the legislation, by no later than July 1, 2025, the Chief Examiner of the Department of Examiners of Public Accounts, in consultation with the Director of Finance and the State Health Officer shall issue a request for proposals from a nationally recognized accounting-consulting firm to select a consultant to review the license applications and applicants and to inspect facilities in order to decide which applicants meet the criteria in the Act for an integrated license.

Applicants will submit, under oath, their previous original license application, updated with current information and agree to have their facility inspected by the consultant.

Within 90 days of the consultant deeming the applicant's information sufficient, the consultant shall render a decision in regard to the approval or denial of the applicant's license. Applicants may appeal that decision to the Circuit Court in Montgomery County, but the process shall not otherwise be subject to review.

The consultant shall base its selection of applicants for integrated licenses in accordance with the criteria set forth in the Act. This criteria includes the same financial criteria for applicants already established in the Cannabis Act ($250K in liquid assets, minimum capital sufficient to sustain the company for two years, a $2 million dollar performance bond, etc.) and whether the applicant possesses a cannabis cultivation facility that meets the requirements for cultivation of cannabis as promulgated by the Department of Agriculture and the Commission.

In addition, the consultant shall grant integrated licenses to those applicants that the consultant determines meet all the necessary criteria of this act and which are: best able to commence the cultivation of cannabis within 60 days; best able to meet the financial requirements to maintain a cannabis company; and are best able to deliver finished medical cannabis products to dispensaries as soon as possible.

The substitute version of SB72 imposes additional disclosure requirements on applicants, including: disclosure of any existing contracts for the sale of any equity or ownership to any party; any contract that would alter the previously disclosed equity ownership of the applicant company; disclosure of any loan agreements entered into by the company or by equity owners that are secured by an equity interest in the applicant company. Any contract or loan agreement that would alter the previously disclosed equity ownership interest in the company shall be grounds for denial of a license.

Chey Garrigan is the founder and president of the Alabama Cannabis Industry Association.

"Anything that will move the program forward, then I believe passing it would be a good thing," Garrigan told the Alabama Gazette. "We have been working on a solution for months in order to provide some relief for Alabamians with diagnosed medical needs."

If the Senate does not pass SB72 by the time it adjourns Tuesday the legislation would be effectively dead as there would not be time for the bill to go to the House of Representatives and pass before time runs out of the legislative session.