|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission has lost the thread.
That is the only way to describe what took place at last Thursday’s AMCC meeting, at which commissioners fought against suspending the annual charge for worthless licenses, labeled some applicants for licenses as “bad guys” and proclaimed that there was a vast conspiracy to bankrupt some applicant companies.
It was truly tin-foil-hat level stuff.
But even worse, it was the public disclosure by a supposedly independent, public-serving body that its members have become personally invested in the licensing process – to the point that it has now labeled applicants that have legally challenged its process as “bad guys.” That comment was made by commissioner Dr. William Salisky, a pulmonologist, who was bemoaning the delays caused by the ongoing litigation, which has caused numerous licensees to continue to pay fees and expenses despite being unable to produce or sell medical cannabis products.
I’ll remind you here that legal delays of this nature do not happen without cause, and in this case the cause has been clear: The AMCC has thoroughly botched the licensing process by failing repeatedly to follow Alabama laws, and it continues to delay the process further by refusing to change its process to adhere to those laws.
It really is that simple.
The AMCC’s licensing process is governed by the Alabama Administrative Procedures Act, which lays out in clear language the process by which limited licenses should be awarded in a situation where multiple qualified candidates exist. The AMCC staff didn’t come even close to following that procedure, despite re-doing it twice, and then the commissioners also made things worse by repeatedly violating the Alabama Open Meetings Act with secret votes and secret hearings.
So, yeah, some companies that dumped millions into getting licenses and trying to meet state requirements filed lawsuits when the body in charge so clearly violated the laws. A circuit court judge has found they’ve got a pretty good argument – and a dozen trips up to the Alabama Civil Appeals Court have done nothing to sway the lower court’s views, either – and it seems pretty hard to blame them for that.
But now, somehow, to this guy who is supposed to be impartial – a commissioner who very likely will be tasked in the near future with determining whether one of these “bad guys” companies should get a license – has labeled these lawsuit filers as “bad guys.”
You see what I’m saying? That’s insane.
And yet, it was less insane than the setting in which it was uttered.
Salisky wasn’t just waxing philosophical about the legal delays, but was instead advocating for giving license holders a 25-percent break on their licenses this year.
Um, pardon? Isn’t that like giving out a 25-percent discount on Blockbuster rentals?
The licenses are worthless at this point. No business holding a license, because of the ongoing legal delays, can operate in any way. And yet, the AMCC has the nerve to first vote down a two-thirds discount on the fee and then vote through a 25-percent discount.
So, congrats AMCC medical cannabis license holder, you only have to pay $30,000 for that piece of paper that has so far been utterly worthless.
Imagine forcing struggling companies to pay $30k for a license that’s worthless because of your ineptitude, and then claiming other people were the “bad guys.”
Oh, but they didn’t just claim it – they laid out a vast conspiracy in which the “bad guys” were filing litigation with the intent of bankrupting the licensed companies in an effort to steal the license, I guess.
No, for real. They said this. Out loud.
Charles Price, a retired judge who sits on the commission, said he believed it was “part of the plaintiff’s strategy.” Rex Vaughn, the chairman of the commission, agreed “with everything” that was said and said he felt everyone on the commission would also agree.
Vaughn also mentioned that the AMCC’s legal team, which continues to rake in millions of dollars in fees, is “working day and night” on this issue, which, I guess, explains the need for the $30,000 worthless-license fees.
And again, I’ll remind you: They’re the ones who have screwed this up. Repeatedly.
They’ve admitted to screwing it up. Tried a do-over. Screwed it up again. Did another do-over. Screwed it up a third time. And here we sit, with them blaming everyone else for their mistakes and pretending – or, hell, maybe even believing – that everyone can’t see what’s really happening here.
But the simple truth is this: The commissioners and staff of the AMCC have become untethered to reality, floating away in some sort of alternate universe, in which they repeatedly try to convince the rest of us that we’re not seeing and hearing all of the things that we’re seeing and hearing. They have made an absolute mockery of this entire process, failed at every single task they’ve taken on, wasted millions upon millions of taxpayer dollars, still haven’t helped a single patient and have, in a state known for its government incompetence, become the most incompetent and embarrassing body in Alabama.
Yeah, I think I know who the “bad guys” are.
