Four days after awarding the state’s first ever medical cannabis licenses, the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission made a surprise announcement – it was placing a hold on those licenses while it investigated “inconsistencies” within its application review process.
To many on the outside looking in, it was a stunning turn of events and another example of government bureaucracy run amok. To those close to the process, including applicants, AMCC employees, attorneys and lobbyists, it was simply the latest – albeit the biggest – flaw in a process that has been filled with them. Flaws that seemingly cost some applicants a license; flaws that gave some applicants an advantage; flaws that kept the general public mostly in the dark.
APR has spoken to more than a dozen people who were involved in the AMCC’s medical marijuana licensing application process in an effort to understand just what went wrong, who is to blame and how the process of awarding licenses to sell medical weed has resulted in, essentially, a do-over, complete with lawsuits and more lawsuits.
“It’s pretty safe to say that you couldn’t really screw up a government operation worse than this one has been screwed up,” said an attorney who has been involved in the application process. “It seemed like every single time they decided to do something it was the wrong decision.”
The attorney, like several others who were interviewed for this story, asked not to be identified out of fear…
