The Alabama Political Reporter
In a lengthy new filing, a plaintiff in one of the many lawsuits filed against the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission is asking the court to appoint a special master to determine which applicant companies comply with the statutory regulations of the state’s medical cannabis laws – a move that would essentially remove the AMCC from the licensing process.
The new filing from Alabama Always, which filed the original litigation against the AMCC, lays out in stark detail the many, many failings of the Commission, and details the instances in which the AMCC has subverted the requirements placed in the law for cannabis companies. It comes as the Alabama Legislature is considering a pair of bills from Sen. Tim Melson that would essentially rework the licensure process, removing the AMCC from many of the decisions.
According to attorney Will Somerville, who has led the plaintiffs’ attorneys throughout the litigation, Monday’s filing would serve as a sort of backstop should the legislature fail to act and would also make it clear that the plaintiffs are seeking to get the AMCC out of the process. Melson’s bill, in its current form, stops just short of that, allowing the AMCC to be involved in the third step of a three-step process.
“I’ve heard that there’s an intent to get AMCC out of that bill,” Somerville said. “If that’s the case, we’d be willing to work with that. We need to make sure that the licensure process happens in the public eye so the kind of shenanigans that the AMCC has been involved in can’t happen again.”
Also see TV news report
