MONTGOMERY — Members of the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC) settled litigation brought by some applicant cannabis companies on Monday.
The AMCC agreed not to use a scoring and evaluation system it used in previous rounds where licenses were awarded and then rescinded due to lawsuits. In exchange, lawsuits brought by unsuccessful applicants who scored poorly against AMCC would be dismissed in the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals and the Montgomery County Circuit Court.
"Not every party to the litigation has concurred with the proposed settlement but those parties that have challenged the scoring and that have claims related to the what we call the 10 megabyte issue which you're aware of and have related claims against the application guide and related forms are in concurrence with the settlement," Mark Wilkerson, an attorney representing AMCC, said at a meeting on Monday. "The commission representatives after looking through all the information and collaborating with the mediator ultimately determined that it was in our recommendation that this commission ratify a settlement that would do the following: 1.) The Court of Civil Appeals that I mentioned that filing would be dismissed. 2.) The court would order a dismissal with prejudice, that means it could not be filed again, related to all matters associated with the scoring, the 10 megabyte issue, and the application guide and related forms. The commission in turn would agree to not consider the scoring and related information as part of its deliberation and as part of its upcoming decisions for these applications."
The settlement was opposed by companies who ranked high under the scoring system and were awarded licenses in previous rounds.
Applicants for cultivation, processor, dispensary, secure transporter, and state testing laboratory licenses are presenting at public meetings to the AMCC this week at the State House before members vote on license awards for a third time at 1 p.m. on Friday. Integrated facility license applicant presentations are scheduled to begin on December 5th and continue until the commission awards licenses for that category on December 12th.
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