Another court filing against the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WIAT) — Another court filing has been made in the case against the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission. Patients say they are suffering, and some argue the commission has been unfair in their licensing process.
"I became a medical refugee," said Amanda Taylor, a medical cannabis patient and advocate. "I literally put what I could fit in my car and drove all the way across the country."
Taylor drove across the country to get help for her gastroparesis and multiple sclerosis. She said that help came in the form of medical cannabis. Taylor said the ongoing lawsuits keep her paying thousands of dollars for medicine that doesn't help her like cannabis does.
"It would give fifty to sixty thousand patients, including myself, the opportunity to end their suffering," said Taylor.
Taylor said these lawsuits are out of greed. But Will Somerville, whose client was not awarded a license, said this is not true.
"The fact is, you can't just give somebody a license and expect them to magically produce medical cannabis, right? They have to have a facility," Somerville said. "And to commence cultivation quickly within sixty days, they have to have a facility already built."
Somerville stated in a filing that the commission failed to use a blind scoring process when awarding licenses in addition to other procedural issues. He said curbing these issues is the way to move forward.
"The fastest way to do this is to force the commission to apply the criteria in the cannabis law and make them give licenses to the best qualified people," explained Somerville. "That will get cannabis medicine into the hands of the people who need it the fastest."
Joey Robertson, who was awarded an integrated license, said the commission made the right decision.
"They're holding up a process for way too long now, that the commissioners have done right," said Robertson. And they've done it in the best spirit they know how, which is for the patients."
John McMillan, Commissioner of the AMCC, said it is important to the patients to get all six license categories up and going.
