MOBILE, Ala. (WPMI) —
After years of legal gridlock and court battles over medical marijuana licenses, the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission now says investigative hearings can proceed. It’s a necessary step in the implementation process, and medical marijuana sales could start this year – four years after the state legalized it.
“We had a number of restraining orders from the circuit court level, and this court of civil appeals vacated those or asked the circuit judge to vacate them so that freed us up to be able to move forward,” said AMCC Director John McMillan.
Foley-based Specialty Medical Products and Oscity Labs was awarded one of five integrated facility licenses, which allows them to grow, process and sell medical marijuana in the state. French says this recent development is very encouraging.
“It is a big step. This is the last thing that they’ll need to do before they proceed with the process of finalizing these licenses,” said French.
French is hopeful this Fall, patients in Alabama will finally be able to access medical marijuana.
“People like us that already have a processing facility in place, that already have our cGMP (Current Good Manufacturing Practice), we can, very quickly, just a matter of a few weeks, turn around and have products on the market,” said French.
Bernard Harwood, former Associate Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, will serve as the Administrative Law Judge over the investigative hearings. Harwood will then make recommendations to the Commission before it issues final orders for integrated facility licenses.
“The legislation itself is extremely complicated and complex, and then you got the rules and regulations that the Commission adopted on top of that, and then the litigation on top of all of that. And really, this investigative hearing process should have been going on, like two years ago,” said McMillan.
This week, the Commission awarded a lab license to Foley-based Green Health Laboratories. It’s another key development and needed step in order for the state to move forward with medical marijuana.
After years of legal gridlock and court battles over medical marijuna licenses, the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission now says investigative hearings can proc Read More
