Alabama medical marijuana licenses can be revoked and companies pressured to “begin from scratch” and reapply for a fourth time underneath a invoice that’s superior out of a state Senate committee.
Although Alabama legalized MMJ in 2021, gross sales have but to start and a promised 2024 launch date now appears questionable.
Republican State Sen. Tim Melson’s Senate Invoice 306, which superior Wednesday, would revoke the 5 licenses for vertically built-in companies that regulators issued late final yr and pressure corporations to reapply but once more, the Alabama Each day Information reported.
Frustration with the shortcoming of the Alabama Medical Hashish Fee (AMCC) to award licenses with out drawing lawsuits boiled over, Melson mentioned.
Wiping ‘the slate clear’
“The fee had one mission, they usually haven’t executed it,” he mentioned, in keeping with the Each day Information.
“I feel in the very best curiosity of this program, we have to begin from scratch, we have to throw (out) each license applicant that acquired (a license).
“This invoice simply wipes the slate clear.”
Along with the 5 coveted built-in facility permits, Alabama will license not more than 12 cultivators, 4 processors and 4 dispensaries. Dispensary licensees will likely be allowed to function as much as three areas.
Solely the built-in licenses can be revoked if SB 306 had been to change into regulation.
Fee would lose energy
The invoice would additionally severely curtail the AMCC’s energy and grant licensing authority to the state Securities Trade Fee, in keeping with the Alabama Political Reporter.
The state’s first try and award licenses was voided after spurred candidates alleged inconsistencies with the tactic used to attain purposes.
Lawsuits from candidates who received a license within the first spherical however not the second voided that spherical.
A decide blocked the third spherical in January after noting “a severe query” as as to if it “can be invalid.”