{"id":82144,"date":"2025-07-09T06:25:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T14:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2025\/07\/09\/alabamas-top-medical-marijuana-official-is-very-hopeful-patients-could-finally-get-legal-access-by-the-end-of-2025\/"},"modified":"2025-07-09T19:47:43","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T03:47:43","slug":"alabamas-top-medical-marijuana-official-is-very-hopeful-patients-could-finally-get-legal-access-by-the-end-of-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2025\/07\/09\/alabamas-top-medical-marijuana-official-is-very-hopeful-patients-could-finally-get-legal-access-by-the-end-of-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Alabama\u2019s Top Medical Marijuana Official Is \u2018Very Hopeful\u2019 Patients Could Finally Get Legal Access By The End Of 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the commission and the staff are more encouraged than we have been any time in the past to date.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

By Alander Rocha, Alabama Reflector<\/strong><\/p>\n

From the outside, it appears to be another one of over 1,500 farms in Cullman County, with a couple of facilities and a structure that will eventually serve as a greenhouse. The front office looks\u2014and smells\u2014like any other office space, with their current hemp-derived products on display and a couple of private offices behind a conference table.<\/p>\n

But when Joey Robertson, CEO and president of Wagon Trail Med-Serv and a managing partner at Wagon Trail Hemp Farms, opens a door behind the front office, an herbal and skunky smell blows out, strong enough to leave one\u2019s senses feeling overwhelmed.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where Robertson produces hemp-derived products like gummies, which he has been doing since 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been essentially the exact fall-in-line with what we\u2019re going to be doing on medical, minus some infrastructure improvements and a bigger fence, so we\u2019re already ready to roll,\u201d Robertson said during a tour of his facility last month.<\/p>\n

The Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission awarded Robertson an integrated facility license in 2023, meaning he can grow, process and sell products under one license. But Alabama\u2019s medical cannabis program, approved by the Legislature in 2021, remains stalled, meaning Robertson has multimillion-dollar machinery sitting idly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been able to carry or offset most of our losses, though, with hemp,\u201d he said. \u201cSo it\u2019s made it to where hemp was hard to thrive, I guess you would say, because we\u2019re turning so much back into keeping that [medical cannabis] license opportunity open.\u201d.<\/p>\n

After over two years of legal wrangling over the licensing process\u2014and over four years after the Alabama Legislature first approved the medical cannabis program\u2014state officials and cannabis producers like Robertson think they\u2019re moving closer to making cannabis available for patients throughout the state, thanks in part to recent state appellate court rulings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the commission and the staff are more encouraged than we have been any time in the past to date,\u201d said Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC) Director John McMillan, saying he is \u201ckind of coming around to being very hopeful\u201d that medical cannabis could be available to Alabamians by the end of 2025, though he stressed that is a best case scenario.<\/p>\n

But there are still many obstacles ahead, including ongoing legal battles and strong opinions regarding the program\u2019s structure and fairness.<\/p>\n

Marty Schelper, founder and president of the Alabama Cannabis Coalition and Alabama Republicans Against Marijuana Prohibition, said she was skeptical about the entire program, saying potential patients may turn to a potentially cheaper black market even when the program has been rolled out.<\/p>\n

Schelper, who called the medical cannabis framework a \u201clegal medical cannabis cartel,\u201d said she believes that the current system is designed to control and regulate the industry by limiting competition, allowing license holders to \u201cset their price on whatever your product is, because you have none of the competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey created the Alabama medical cannabis cartel, and they\u2019re not allowed free markets, and that\u2019s why they can\u2019t implement medical cannabis in the state of Alabama,\u201d Schelper said.<\/p>\n

But others are sounding optimistic. Ray French, CEO for Specialty Medical Products of Alabama, a company that won a license in each of the attempted rounds, said that integrated operators who can grow, process and sell the final product, like his own business, will be able to start operating within \u201ca few weeks, once the commission completes their process,\u201d as they are already operational and possess the necessary equipment and certifications.<\/p>\n

A stalled program<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Alabama medical cannabis law, enacted in 2021, allows registered physicians to recommend cannabis for specific qualifying conditions. The approved product forms are restricted to tablets, tinctures, patches, oils, and gummies (only peach flavor), with raw plant material and smokable forms remaining prohibited.<\/p>\n

When the program is fully operational, there will be up to 37 dispensaries across the state. After the licensees have operated dispensaries for at least a year, the commission may allow licensees to open additional dispensaries.<\/p>\n

Robertson said they plan to operate dispensaries in Cullman, Decatur, Florence, Athens and Montgomery, though he said that dispensary locations are subject to change. He said that some cities have a higher concentration of planned dispensaries compared to more rural parts of the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo working with the commission, if they allow for us change and really cover more of the state, which I feel like they will, people get more coverage in medicine,\u201d Robertson said.<\/p>\n

But the licensing process, which began in 2023, has been contentious. The commission\u2019s first round of license awards in June of that year was withdrawn amid controversy over the scoring of applications. A second round of awards later that year was put on hold because of allegations that the AMCC violated the Open Meetings Act. The commission awarded licenses at the end of 2023, but those have been caught up in litigation.<\/p>\n

The AMCC has already issued licenses in several categories, but integrated facility and dispensary licenses, which are required before doctors can be certified and allowed to recommend products to patients, have been on hold due to the ongoing litigation.<\/p>\n

But the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals in May overturned a permanent injunction imposed by Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge James Anderson in April that blocked the last round of licensing because it was awarded under emergency rules.<\/p>\n

The month prior, the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals overturned a temporary restraining order that prevented the commission from issuing licenses due to allegedly not complying with the Administrative Procedure Act, saying that Anderson lacked jurisdiction when it issued a stay in favor of Alabama Always, a company seeking a medical cannabis license, and dismissed the case.<\/p>\n

A more recent lawsuit was brought by five parents who want the court to order the AMCC to establish a patient registry for medical cannabis patients<\/a>. A scheduled hearing on the case was postponed late last month; as of Thursday morning, it had not been rescheduled.<\/p>\n

All that remains for the commission to do before finalizing awards, said McMillan, is to conduct investigative hearings, which can be called by any applicant in the license category.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have notified the applicants that are eligible to participate as they want to, and then we\u2019ve turned it over to the administrative law judge,\u201d McMillan said, \u201cWe\u2019re totally out of it, no communication, no nothing. It\u2019s between him and the applicants now.\u201d<\/p>\n

But McMillan was vague about a timeline for the hearings, saying that several factors could influence it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll depend on how many of the applicants want to participate in the hearing, and then how long it takes the administrative law judge to do the preparatory work for having the hearings and then to actually have the hearing,\u201d McMillan said.<\/p>\n

Robertson said at an interview he feels that is a reasonable prediction. He said his integrated facility, which includes an outdoor greenhouse and indoor growing facility, as well as processing and production facilities, is ready to begin operations as soon as he receives final approval.<\/p>\n

Because cannabis plants can take months to grow, he plans to first procure raw plant material from cultivators, whose licenses have been approved and have been growing cannabis since the first half of 2024, to make the first few rounds of products.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to be that option for people to be able to bring their biomass to us. We can convert it to oil products\u2014either purchase it from them to resell or to produce their products for them to sell in the independent dispensaries,\u201d Robertson said.<\/p>\n

He said that with cannabis plants having been growing in the state since cultivators received their final licenses, the remaining steps can be completed within a month.<\/p>\n

Because he is also a managing partner of Wagon Trail Hemp Farms, where they have been making seed-to-sale hemp-derived products since 2019, he also believes he won\u2019t have much of a learning curve. The facility, he said, can process 1,000 pounds of raw plant material per day, which translates to about 80 kilos of oil daily.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s enough oil for the entire state of Alabama. That\u2019s enough to produce 3.5 million doses in one day\u2019s worth of oil,\u201d Robertson said.<\/p>\n

Once they have the oil processed and tested, the production process is quite quick. They can produce 30,000 to 40,000 gummies in one shift.<\/p>\n

Ongoing litigation<\/strong><\/p>\n

But lawsuits have continued. Will Somerville, an attorney representing Alabama Always, one of the firms that sued AMCC after not receiving a license, said in an interview in May the hearings should be conducted on a \u201clevel playing field,\u201d saying that applicants initially chosen in December 2023 should not receive an unfair advantage.<\/p>\n

There is a strong belief that some licenses were awarded to those who did not \u201craise as much of a stink about the process\u201d as others, Somerville said, a practice he believes to be illegal and discriminatory.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s why they rewarded the people who sucked up to them,\u201d Somerville said. \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any other basis for awarding those licenses.\u201d<\/p>\n

French, of Specialty Medical Products of Alabama, called those claims \u201cunbelievable.\u201d He said that his company is well qualified, with extensive experience in the hemp industry in Alabama. He currently also owns Oscity Labs, which produces CBD edibles and tinctures in an integrated facility.<\/p>\n

The facilities, he said, have been certified as having Current Good Manufacturing Practices (CGMP), a set of regulations enforced by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ensure products are consistently manufactured under controlled and healthy conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel like we are not only a qualified applicant in all ways, but we are one of the handful of operators that are actually already CGMPed. I mean, that\u2019s a huge lift,\u201d French said.<\/p>\n

Alabama Always has also filed a federal lawsuit alleging the AMCC commissioners showed bias and acted against those who challenged the process. Somerville said the lawsuit seeks to determine the extent of the commission\u2019s misconduct and its impact on its clients, with monetary damages potentially on the table, but he doesn\u2019t foresee it stalling the process further.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t think a lot of these commissioners have the ability to be impartial,\u201d Somerville said, saying the lawsuit is intended to ensure the process moves along according to the law. A hearing has not been set on the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

McMillan said that the timeline for making medical cannabis available also depends on how many applicants participate in the investigative hearings process and how long the administrative law judge takes to prepare and conduct them.<\/p>\n

French said the appeals court\u2019s decision to overturn the restraining order was \u201cvery encouraging news.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the delays can be financially straining for applicants as they wait to begin production. French said \u201ckeeping employees operational, keeping operations going\u201d has been a challenge, as well as maintaining expensive facilities without being able to sell products.<\/p>\n

Robertson predicted that he would come out even in about two years after investing $4 million into the facilities. Because of the delays, he said that it could be four years before he is able to break even.<\/p>\n

\u201cBetween the legal fees and operational fees, and holding all of the facilities and everything else, it\u2019s been a multimillion-dollar venture at this point. We have $4 million of infrastructure sitting here, and we can\u2019t do anything with it, and then we\u2019ve got all the other operations and legal fees,\u201d Robertson said.<\/p>\n

This story was first published by Alabama Reflector.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The post Alabama\u2019s Top Medical Marijuana Official Is \u2018Very Hopeful\u2019 Patients Could Finally Get Legal Access By The End Of 2025<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\u201cI think the commission and the staff are more encouraged than we have been any time in the past to date.\u201d By Alander Rocha, Alabama Reflector From the outside, it appears to be another one of over 1,500 farms in Cullman County, with a couple of facilities and a structureContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":457,"featured_media":0,"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\/82144"}],"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=82144"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82145,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82144\/revisions\/82145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}