Lab licensing spurs hopes that Alabama cannabis logjam will end

There’s still nowhere to buy medical cannabis in Alabama and no clear idea of when all that will happen.But testing for the drug will be available soon.

ADVERTISEMENT That’s the upshot after a commercial cannabis testing lab on Tuesday received a license from the state’s Medical Cannabis Commission, the Alabama Daily News reported.Meanwhile, the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC) hinted at movement in the arduous process to license other medical marijuana businesses.

The state is home to what might be the most drawn-out MMJ legalization process yet seen in the United States, with multiple rounds of licensing for retailers and vertically integrated businesses canceled after allegations of favoritism and several ongoing lawsuits.But, according to the Daily News, after awarding the testing lab permit to Green Health Laboratories, state officials said there’s been progress with the litigation that’s kept the market in limbo.

An administrative law judge will hear arguments, and once those are completed, the AMCC might be able to award dispensary licenses, the Daily News reported.That could happen as soon as this year, officials suggested.

“I probably have guarded optimism about the dispensary category proceeding,” Commissioner Sam Blackmore told the Daily News.The investigative hearings concern only MMJ dispensary licenses and not the vertically integrated permits.

ADVERTISEMENT A federal lawsuit brought in May by spurned vertically integrated applicant Alabama Always is pending.Alabama’s MMJ program became law in 2021, and the first business licenses were issued in 2023 before the process descended into the current morass of lawsuits.

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