{"id":67743,"date":"2023-08-16T08:50:34","date_gmt":"2023-08-16T16:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2023\/08\/16\/alabama-medical-marijuana-company-sues-state-regulators-over-alleged-open-meetings-law-violations-in-licensing-votes\/"},"modified":"2023-08-16T19:46:29","modified_gmt":"2023-08-17T03:46:29","slug":"alabama-medical-marijuana-company-sues-state-regulators-over-alleged-open-meetings-law-violations-in-licensing-votes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2023\/08\/16\/alabama-medical-marijuana-company-sues-state-regulators-over-alleged-open-meetings-law-violations-in-licensing-votes\/","title":{"rendered":"Alabama Medical Marijuana Company Sues State Regulators Over Alleged Open Meetings Law Violations In Licensing Votes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/MM_Bill_Tracker_V5_blank-30.jpg\" width=\"1500\" height=\"1500\"> <\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThey told the judge they would comply with the act, and then they didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>By Alander Rocha, Alabama Reflector<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A medical cannabis company Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC), alleging the commission violated the state\u2019s Open Meetings Act (OMA) at its August 10 meeting.<\/p>\n<p>Alabama Always, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marijuanamoment.net\/top-alabama-medical-marijuana-regulator-faces-lawsuit-seeking-his-removal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">which\u00a0sued the commission last month<\/a>\u00a0over the appointment of former chair Steven Stokes, alleged that commission members privately nominated companies for public votes on license awards during an executive session.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit alleges that commission members were instructed to seal their nominations in an envelope during the executive session, and the companies with the most nominations received a public vote in the August 10 meeting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey told the judge they would comply with the act, and then they didn\u2019t,\u201d said Will Somerville, an attorney for Alabama Always, in a phone interview Tuesday. \u201cAnd I think the evidence that we presented in the motion was really clear that violated the act.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The AMCC\u00a0re-awarded <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marijuanamoment.net\/alabama-officials-re-award-medical-marijuana-business-licenses\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">licenses\u00a0for the production and distribution of medical cannabis<\/a> at the August 10 meeting, two months after stopping earlier awards amid questions about the evaluation of applications.<\/p>\n<p>Nearly all the firms awarded licenses two months ago got them back, and the commission granted additional licenses to firms looking to grow medical cannabis. Alabama Always was not awarded a license in either round.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u2014<br \/>\n<strong>Marijuana Moment is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marijuanamoment.net\/bills\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">tracking more than 1,000 cannabis, psychedelics and drug policy bills<\/a> in state legislatures and Congress this year. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/marijuanamoment\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Patreon supporters<\/a> pledging at least $25\/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they don\u2019t miss any developments.<\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.marijuanamoment.net\/bills\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-9128 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/MM_Bill_Tracker_V5_blank-29.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>Learn more about our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marijuanamoment.net\/bills\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">marijuana bill tracker<\/a> and become a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/marijuanamoment\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">supporter on Patreon<\/a> to get access.<br \/>\n\u2014<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Brittany Peters, spokesperson for the AMCC, said Tuesday they are aware of the filing but could not comment on pending litigation.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit claims that comments made by the AMCC Chair Rex Vaughn and attorney Will Webster during the meeting implied they were going to discuss \u201cimpermissible subjects\u201d in the executive session, and that staff from the University of South Alabama joining the executive session was also a violation of the OMA.<\/p>\n<p>Lynne Chronister, University of South Alabama\u2019s vice president for research and economic development, and Kristen Roberts, the university\u2019s financial officer, spoke to the commission at the August 10 meeting to describe flaws with an evaluation process overseen by the university. The flaws led to the first pause in the issuing of licenses.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit alleges that Webster\u2019s comments before going into executive session did not suggest the session was for the purposes of discussing a \u201cstate-sanctioned profession,\u201d but rather, \u201cto discuss, in private, outside of public scrutiny, against the clear policy of the State of Alabama, the ability of applicants for medical cannabis licenses to comply with the requirements of the Darren Wesley \u2018Ato\u2019 Hall Compassion Act.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, that\u2019s precisely the kind of stuff that ought to be in public,\u201d Somerville said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/alabamareflector.com\/2023\/08\/15\/alabama-medical-cannabis-commission-sued-over-alleged-open-meetings-act-violations\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>This story was first published by Alabama Reflector.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"Yxnx96z6sb\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.marijuanamoment.net\/germanys-federal-cabinet-approves-marijuana-legalization-bill-sending-it-to-lawmakers-for-enactment\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Germany\u2019s Federal Cabinet Approves Marijuana Legalization Bill, Sending It To Lawmakers For Enactment<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p \/>\n<p><em>Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.marijuanamoment.net\/alabama-medical-marijuana-company-sues-state-regulators-over-alleged-open-meetings-law-violations-in-licensing-votes\/\" target=\"_blank\">Alabama Medical Marijuana Company Sues State Regulators Over Alleged Open Meetings Law Violations In Licensing Votes<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.marijuanamoment.net\" target=\"_blank\">Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#013;<br \/>\n&#013;<br \/>\nRead More: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marijuanamoment.net\/alabama-medical-marijuana-company-sues-state-regulators-over-alleged-open-meetings-law-violations-in-licensing-votes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Alabama Medical Marijuana Company Sues State Regulators Over Alleged Open Meetings Law Violations In Licensing Votes<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThey told the judge they would comply with the act, and then they didn\u2019t.\u201d By Alander Rocha, Alabama Reflector A medical cannabis company Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC), alleging the commission violated the state\u2019s Open Meetings Act (OMA) at its August 10 meeting. Alabama<span class=\"more-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2023\/08\/16\/alabama-medical-marijuana-company-sues-state-regulators-over-alleged-open-meetings-law-violations-in-licensing-votes\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":457,"featured_media":67744,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67743"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67743"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67745,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67743\/revisions\/67745"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}