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Alabama Could Move Up Medical Marijuana Licenses

Regulators hope to get products to patients next year.

Alabama House chamber, Montgomery, December 2014.
Alabama House chamber, Montgomery, December 2014.
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The panel established to oversee Alabama’s medical marijuana program will ask state lawmakers to tweak the new law in order to get products to patients next year.

The state’s medical marijuana bill allows prospective growers and processors to begin applying for licenses in September of 2022, but the growing time required for Alabama-grown cannabis plants would mean that products would not become available until 2023.

Rex Vaughn, the vice chairman of the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission, told Al.com he is in talks with legislators about shifting the license application window to early next year. Although the proposed change could require additional tweaks in the law, Vaughan told the paper it “may allow us to grow a crop in 2022.”

The Legislature could take up the application date if it comes into special session later this year, as expected.

The 14-member AMCC also voted to approve State Treasurer John McMillan as the executive director of the state’s new medical marijuana oversight agency. McMillan, a former state agriculture commissioner, is expected to resign his current post to take the job.

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