Member of Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission Involved in Licensing Process

Montgomery, Alabama (Wiatt) – Continue Court Ordered Suspension of Proceedings and Pending Litigationsome members of the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission disagree on how the group should proceed going forward.

On Monday, a majority of the committee voted to keep the policy, allowing accounting firm KPMG to fix a “mathematical inconsistency” in the scoring and re-grant the license on Aug. 10. However, not all members are in favor of this plan.

Laurie Skelton expressed concern that much of the scoring is outsourced to anonymous evaluators and outside companies.

“We don’t just want complete transparency,” Skelton said. “I think it should be demanded.”

Skelton said he was not given enough information to conduct an informed vote on Wednesday. During the meeting, another member commented that the process felt rushed.

“I was given a number or a percentage without any criteria, no backup, no analysis, no summary, no conclusion, and I don’t know what to know if I’m confident to trust it,” she said. Told.

Skelton suggested pausing the use of outside companies and coming up with an entirely different solution. However, her motion was not approved. Another commissioner proposed a process to have the committee evaluate applications without an external grader, but the motion was defeated 7-4.

Commission Chair Stephen Stokes defended the use of an independent scorer from the University of South Alabama.

“Every state has evaluators,” Stokes said. “Now Florida has taken advantage of their commission, but they’ve been embroiled in lawsuits for several years.”

Stokes said the evaluators were anonymous but qualified, and outsourcing helped eliminate bias.

“They are not high school students.

The next August 10 meeting coincides with Chairman John McMillan saying Montgomery Circuit Judge James Anderson is likely to lift the suspension.