The Alabama Court of Civil Appeals determined Friday, March 7, that a lower circuit court had erred in issuing a temporary restraining order which halted investigatory hearings on disputed medical cannabis licenses in the state, a decision that advocates say will get medicine into the hand of patients much sooner.

“This appellate court ruling just undid two years worth of delays,” Joey Robertson, head of operations and public relations of Wagon Trail Hemp Farm in Cullman, said.

“Today is a better day for me and it’s a better day for the patients of Alabama,” Robertson added.

The passage of the Darren Wesley Hall Compassion Act legalized the cultivation and distribution of certain medical cannabis products in 2021, but legal disputes have since delayed the rollout of the program. During the most recent challenge brought by Alabama Always, one of the companies who were denied a license by the AMCC, a Montgomery Circuit Court Judge issued a temporary restraining order days before the commission was set to begin hearing to dispute the awarded licenses.

Friday’s unanimous ruling determined the lower court had lacked the jurisdiction to issue the restraining order and deemed it to be invalid.

Amanda Taylor, a Cullman County medical cannabis patient advocate, said she had attempted to intervene at the Circuit Court level on behalf of patients who had been denied. She said Friday’s ruling had felt like a vindication of sorts and was happy to have had the voices of those in need of these medical products finally heard.

“It felt like I had slayed a giant,” Taylor said. “I know we’re not completely done, but this is something that completely changes the game and can get the ball rolling and moving forward. I’m absolutely elated.”

While Robertson said he considered the verdict a win for companies who have already been issued licenses, he clarified that the process was far from over.

Companies who were denied licenses will be able to initiate proceedings similar to a trial in which witnesses may be called  and give attorneys the chance to argue why their clients should have been awarded a license before an administrative law judge. Robertson said that process could take up to several weeks.

“[This decision] gives the circuit court direction. It mandates the court to remove that restraining order and hopefully allows us to move on through the investigative hearings and complete the process. I don’t know exactly what the timeline will be, but we could be two or three months out.” Robertson said.

Robertson also said license holders could face potential roadblocks from state lawmakers in the form of legislation which could disrupt the licensing process.

Both Robertson and Taylor spoke in opposition of Senator Tim Melson’s, a Republican representing portions of Limestone and Lauderdale counties, SB72, which would take licensing control away from the AMCC and give it to a national third party agency.

Robertson previously told The Times that Wagon Trail had preemptively invested around $4 million in preparation for Alabama’s medical cannabis rollout and that an additional $6 million to $8 million would need to be invested to get operations off the ground. He said independently owned companies such as his would likely be hesitant to make those investments if legislative changes were likely to substantially disrupt the licensing process.

“If there is legislation that promotes a restart, such as SB72, or something that drastically changes the original rules, then it would halt us at that point of moving forward,” Robertson said. “It makes it difficult for us to go and invest all that extra money in infrastructure and do all the hiring that we need to do knowing that a ‘fix’ could lessen the value of what we are working toward or take away our license altogether.”

When reached by phone Friday, March 7, Melson said he continued to question the AMCC’s licensing process but that he “wasn’t in a hurry” to put SB72 in front of Gov. Kay Ivey.

“If this gets it moving, great,” Melson said. “I wouldn’t mind moving my bill to have it ready just in case. Maybe no take it all the way to the governor’s office, but I’d like to get it out of the Senate and get it down to the House so that it’s in position. I’m not in a hurry to move it forward, I just want to be in a place that I can move it.”

Patrick Camp may be reached by email at patrick.camp@cullmantimes.com or by phone at 256-734-2131 ext. 238.