Alabama Cannabis Regulators Reach Deal to End Lawsuits

The Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC) this week reached a settlement with license applicants covering most of the issues that led to lawsuits against the agency, WBRC reports. The settlement still needs to be ratified, which is expected during the AMCC’s November 27 meeting. 

Under the settlement terms, the AMCC will toss the scores of the original application evaluators, which the agency said in June had “potential inconsistencies” and led to a pause in the application process, and allow applicants in all categories, except for the integrated licensing category, to resubmit videos and briefing materials before the commission begins a new round of discussions and licenses for those categories. 

The AMCC is on its third attempt to award industry licenses but said last month that it intends to finalize the licenses by December 12.   

AMCC Chairman Rex Vaughn had previously indicated that commissioners could “choose to disregard the previous scoring,” but under the terms of the deal, the scores from the University of Alabama will not be considered at all. 

The commission had first issued licenses in June but rescinded those permits after lawsuits related to scoring data, claims of violations of the state’s open meetings law, and pushback against voiding the previously awarded licenses.