Alabama Judge Appoints Mediator to Resolve Medical Cannabis Licensing Dispute

Montgomery Circuit Judge James Anderson on Tuesday appointed a mediator in the legal dispute over Alabama’s attempts to award medical cannabis operator licenses, ABC News reports.

Anderson appointed retired Circuit Judge Eugene Reese to the case, writing that mediation “is appropriate in this case and could result in the speedy and just resolution of the dispute.” The argument stems from a series of lawsuits against the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission’s (AMCC) licensing efforts for the state’s medical cannabis program, which lawmakers approved in 2021.

The AMCC first attempted to issue medical cannabis licenses in June 2023 and since then, regulators have licensed medical cannabis cultivators, processors, transportation services, and a testing lab. However, even though some cultivators have already started growing, the licenses for integrated operators — which cover the combined cultivation, manufacturing, and retail of medical cannabis — have been repeatedly blocked by lawsuits.

The lawsuits cover a variety of complaints including that there were “inconsistencies in the tabulation of [applicants’] scoring data;” that the AMCC had violated the state’s open meetings law; that officials had no right to revoke licenses that were awarded then retracted following the discovery of the aforementioned data error; that regulators had wrongfully implied the owner of a company had been previously convicted of a crime; and that regulators unfairly excluded a company’s application from the second licensing round. Most recently, one of the companies suing the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission last month asked a judge to toss the agency’s attempts to award cannabis licenses and declare the regulators’ appeal process void.

Previously, state cannabis regulators and licensees asked for a court order to allow the state’s medical cannabis program to proceed.

Meanwhile, thousands of medical cannabis patients in Alabama have been left without legal access for more than a year since regulators first attempted to issue the licenses.