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After four years, Alabama patients are still waiting for the relief they were promised when the Legislature passed Alabama’s medical cannabis law in 2021. Sadly, the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission, AMCC, the very commission tasked with keeping the Legislature’s promise to Alabamians, has failed to get medical cannabis to qualified patients.
Let’s review what the AMCC has been up to since the law’s passage four years ago. The AMCC awarded and revoked licenses multiple times and failed to follow laws like the Open Meetings Act, creating not only uncertainty, but eroding the public’s trust. Their behavior has been challenged in court, and rightfully so.
The AMCC has completely failed to establish a patient registry that would allow patients to become eligible to purchase medical cannabis in Alabama. The commission also refused to even inspect medical cannabis facilities prior to awarding licenses, even though the law clearly requires that they do so. You can’t make this stuff up. While I do not believe the individuals serving on the AMCC had malicious intent, the process used to award licenses appears to have been deeply flawed and compromised.
A recent appellate court ruling lifted the restraining order against the AMCC, making some people think this was nearing the end. Since this ruling, the AMCC seems to have been doing victory laps, when in reality they know this ruling is not getting medical cannabis to the patients quicker.
Why? Due process is the right of all, including those companies which were not awarded a license. Some friends in the legal community tell me the ruling will drag this nightmare out even longer with hearings and appeals. Companies awarded a license and those that were not awarded a license will have a chance to prove they meet the legal requirements in the law. This may take years, not months.
You may be asking what has this cost Alabama? I’ll let others figure out how much taxpayer money has been wasted. I want to focus on the more important thing it has cost.
That is the human cost, which cannot be measured in dollars and cents. It’s measured by the number of tears shed by watching a loved one suffer and not having access to potential life altering treatment. It’s measured in the number of seizures in children that conventional pharmaceuticals cannot stop. It’s measured in the number of our loved ones whose quality of life has deteriorated. It’s measured in how many times loved ones and their families have questioned their existence living with immeasurable pain. All of these which the Legislature promised Alabamians relief in 2021.
It’s beyond time the Legislature rekindles the hope that has been lost. We have good people serving in the Legislature that want to see this suffering end. I am confident that the Legislature can create a more efficient, fair and uncorrupt process to launch Alabama’s medical cannabis program.
I humbly ask you to call your local state representative and senator and urge them the time to act is NOW.
The time is NOW for the Legislature to fix this problem and restore the hope it promised four years ago, or the suffering people of Alabama will lose it forever.
