State’s medical cannabis business application deadline approaching

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - The clock is ticking for those wanting to apply for a license to be part of Alabama’s medical marijuana industry. The deadline is Dec. 30.

The state distributed more than 600 applications to get in on Alabama’s budding industry. Still, less than half of those applications have even been started, and state officials are now gearing up for the review process.

So far, 51 cities have passed ordinances to allow the sale of medical marijuana.

The director of Alabama’s Medical Cannabis Commission, John McMillan, says the industry is starting to flower.

“If everything goes smooth, we anticipate being able to have products, dispensaries open, and products in those by around this time next year, late in 2023,” said McMillan.

“Starting in mid-June, they got to set up businesses, set up to dispensaries, set up growing processes,” he said.

Applicants have until Dec. 30 to submit their applications. Licenses will be awarded on June 12. The time crunch isn’t the only obstacle. McMillian says this is a cash-only business.

“It’s important that nationally we get the SAFE Banking Act passed in Congress,” said McMillan.

McMillan says it might make startup difficult.

According to Careers in Cannabis co-founder, Sloane Barbour, every million dollars in consumer sales will create 20 jobs.

“Communities get more and more comfortable with it and understand the plan,” said Barbour. “A lot of entrepreneurship generally tends to emerge from the cannabis industry.”

Prescriptions are expected to be written closer to the time that the product will be available.

There are over a dozen conditions that would qualify to be treated by medical marijuana in the state:

• Autism
• Cancer-related weight loss or chronic pain
• Crohn’s
• Depression, epilepsy or conditions causing seizures
• HIV/AIDS-related nausea or weight loss
• Panic disorder
• Parkinson’s
• Persistent nausea not related to pregnancy
• Post-traumatic stress disorder
• Sickle cell
• Spasticity associated with diseases, including Lou Gehrig’s disease, multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injuries
• Terminal illnesses
• Tourette syndrome
• Chronic pain for which conventional therapies and opiates should not be used or are ineffective

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