Alabama regulators are setting a timeline for the adoption of medicinal cannabis

Potential medical cannabis patients in Alabama got clarity this week on when to expect the new legal treatment in the state.

John McMillan, the director of the state’s medical cannabis commission, told local news agency WIAT that the commission “is in the process of accepting dispensing license applications through September, with regulations for the program due to be released this summer.”

“From there it’s a three-and-a-half to four-month process of courtship, hearings and things that go into what I call clumsiness of the state to get things done,” McMillan said, as quoted by WIAT.

Under that timeline, the news channel said McMillan “expects patients could be issued a cannabis ID card by spring 2023.”

“A lot of good can come from having a safe, quality drug for people to use instead of sending them out onto the streets to work on the black market,” McMillan said, according to WIAT.

Alabama legalized medicinal cannabis last May when Republican Gov. Kay Ivey signed legislation making it the 36th state to authorize and regulate the treatment.

“This is certainly a sensitive and emotional issue and something that is under constant investigation,” Ivey said in a statement at the time. “At the state level, we had a study group that looked extensively into this topic, and I’m interested in the potential that good medicinal cannabis can have for people with chronic illnesses, or what it can do to improve the quality of life for those people improve in their final days.”

In November, the Alabama State Board of Medical Examiners drafted rules about how and when physicians in the state may offer cannabis as a treatment to patients. The board advised physicians to recommend cannabis while there is documentation confirming “conventional medical treatment or therapy has failed unless current medical treatment indicates use of medicinal cannabis is the standard of care,” and for the following qualifying conditions: Autism Spectrum Disorder; cancer-related cachexia, nausea or vomiting, weight loss, or chronic pain; Crohn’s disease; Depression; epilepsy or a condition that causes seizures; HIV/AIDS related nausea or weight loss; panic disorder; Parkinson’s disease; Persistent nausea that does not respond significantly to conventional treatment, with the exception of morning sickness, cannabis-induced cyclical vomiting, or cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome; post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); Sickle cell anemia; spasticity associated with motor neuron disease, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS); spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis (MS) or a spinal cord injury; incurable disease; and Tourette’s syndrome.

But the rollout was not without setbacks and delays. In October, the state Medical Cannabis Commission said it “would not push to make licenses for cultivation and distribution of medical cannabis available any earlier, meaning medical cannabis will not be available in Alabama until 2023,” the Montgomery reported advertisers back then.

The newspaper reported that “Rex Vaughn, the commission’s vice-chairman, said the group needed to look at other tasks, including making regulations and training doctors,” and that “Vaughn also expressed concerns that further legislative action.” – required to move the data – could expose the medical cannabis law to attempts to weaken it.”

“At this point, we have decided not to ask the Legislature to dig up another bill and reopen it,” Vaughn said, as quoted by the Montgomery Advertiser. “We could lose what we have.”

In the meantime, some lawmakers in Alabama appear willing to go even further with cannabis policy reform. Last month, a state Senate committee passed legislation that would decriminalize small amounts of cannabis in the state.

Post a comment:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *