Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission talks solutions to gridlock in court system
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WIAT) — John McMillan is the director of the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission. He said a stalemate in the court system is keeping it from moving forward and putting medicine in the hands of patients.
Now, McMillan said it's up to the judges or the legislature to take action.
'I went from less than 100 pounds, barely able to work or do anything … to flourishing,' said Amanda Taylor, an advocate for medical cannabis patients.
Taylor said medical marijuana saved her life, and there are other patients just like her.
'I have a ton of my own stories,' Taylor said. 'But I'm ready for Alabamians to be able to share theirs.'
New collection of short stories, essays from Alabama icon Harper Lee to be released this fall
A legal battle, however, has kept the medicine out of their hands, according to McMillan. People sued the commission after they weren't given a license to sell medical marijuana.
'A lot of that has to do with the fact that there are a limited number of licenses,' McMillan said. 'In the integrated category, for example, where most of the litigation stems from, there are five licenses and 38 applicants for those. So everybody can't get a license.'
McMillan said the solution to the problem is the courts lifting a temporary restraining order or the legislature passing a bill to revise the licensing process. He said the commission is not taking a position on any legislation.
'We've got cultivators that are growing cannabis right now and very successfully,' McMillan said. 'But you can only do that for some abbreviated period of time if you don't have some sort of revenue coming in, so the program needs to get going.'
Will Somerville represents Alabama Always, a company suing the commission. He said the commission hasn't followed the law when awarding licenses.
'What the commission wants to do is force everybody through its flawed, invalid process, and then have them challenge the process on the back end,' Somerville said. 'Well, the problem is anybody who gets license under the flawed process is going to be challenged on the back end.'
McMillan said he just wants to get medicine to patients.
'We've tried to address every demand that some of the litigants have told us that they would be satisfied,' McMillan said. ''If we just did this or did that,' and then as soon as they don't get a license in the next round, [we're] right back to court again.'
McMillan said it's had oral arguments before the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals. He said it is waiting on that decision and have another hearing in circuit court April 17.
McMillan said he doesn't know when the commission will be able to move forward.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
19 hours ago
- Yahoo
Critics Rip ‘Wannabe Dictator' Trump for LA Troop Deployment
Critics of the administration have lined up to bash President Donald Trump as an 'authoritarian' after he sent the National Guard to quash protests in Los Angeles against raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 'We have a president who is moving this country rapidly toward authoritarianism,' Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, said on CNN Sunday morning. 'This guy wants all of the power. He does not believe in the constitution, he does not believe in the rule of law.' Trump announced Saturday that he was federalizing the California National Guard and deploying 2,000 troops to Los Angeles, where protests against ICE raids erupted this week—a move California Governor Gavin Newsom blasted as 'purposefully inflammatory' and warned would 'only escalate tensions.' The last time a president overrode a governor to seize control of a state's National Guard was in 1965, when former President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to Alabama to protect civil rights marchers, according to The New York Times. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) branded Trump as a 'wannabe dictator' in a statement, while California Senator Adam Schiff of Los Angeles blasted Trump's deployment of National Guard members as a politically motivated stunt with far-reaching consequences. 'If the Guard is needed to restore peace, the Governor will ask for it. But continuing down this path will erode trust in the National Guard and set a dangerous precedent for unilateral misuse of the Guard across the country,' Schiff said. Former Department of Homeland Security Chief of Staff Miles Taylor, who served in the first Trump administration, said Trump's latest move is 'the most significant act you've seen yet in the Trump administration' and puts him one step closer to what Taylor claims he's always wanted to do: 'taking control of national law enforcement.' Speaking on MSNBC's The Weekend, Taylor said that during Trump's first term, 'his own lieutenants were worried he would create a de facto police state if he was going to be deploying the military on U.S. soil.' 'That was our fear, and we are seeing potentially the early innings of that play out in real-time,' he added. The National Guard was last federalized in 1992, when President George H.W. Bush deployed troops to respond to the L.A. riots—at the request of then-Governor Pete Wilson and then-Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley. This time, neither Newsom nor Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass requested federal intervention, and officials from the LAPD and sheriff's department said the demonstrations, despite some flare-ups of violence, were under control, according to The Washington Post. 'Sending federalized guard troops to Southern California, without regard for the authority or approval of local or state officials, is a tactic we associate with authoritarian regimes, not the United States,' said Roman Palomares, president and board chairman of League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), a civil rights group. 'For the federal government to take over the California National Guard, without the request of the governor, to put down protests is truly chilling,' Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law and a leading scholar on constitutional law, told the Los Angeles Times. 'It is using the military domestically to stop dissent. It certainly sends a message as to how this administration is going to respond to protests. It is very frightening to see this done,' he said. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt justified the deployment by claiming that 'violent mobs have attacked ICE Officers and Federal Law Enforcement Agents carrying out basic deportation operations in Los Angeles.' 'These operations are essential to halting and reversing the invasion of illegal criminals into the United States. In the wake of this violence, California's feckless Democrat leaders have completely abdicated their responsibility to protect their citizens,' she told the Daily Beast in a statement. 'The Trump Administration has a zero tolerance policy for criminal behavior and violence, especially when that violence is aimed at law enforcement officers trying to do their jobs. These criminals will be arrested and swiftly brought to justice. The Commander-in-Chief will ensure the laws of the United States are executed fully and completely.' Echoing a similar narrative, Trump has attacked Newsom on Truth Social: 'If Governor Gavin Newscum, of California, and Mayor Karen Bass, of Los Angeles, can't do their jobs, which everyone knows they can't, then the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!'
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Leaders in Alabama react to President Donald Trump's ‘Big, Beautiful Bill'
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WIAT) — Leaders in Alabama have a lot to say on what President Donald Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill' could mean for the state. The bill features a tax cut on overtime and a cut in funding to Medicaid and SNAP programs. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) said he supports the bill, but he said it needs some changes in the Senate. 'The way to grow this country is to get the tax cuts done,' Tuberville said. 'And the tax cuts are in this bill. And we need to make them permanent, and there are a lot of things in there that are really, really good, and there's some things in there that are very questionable.' State Rep. Sam Jones (D-Mobile) said the whole bill is questionable. He said changes to Medicaid will have implications for healthcare in the state. 'There are people with intellectual disabilities, there are people who are- have serious, serious issues,' said Rep. Jones. 'And when they're not on Medicaid, they have no medical services at all.' The Cover Alabama Campaign advocates for those medical services. Debbie Smith, director of the campaign with Alabama Arise, said 170,000 Alabamians could lose healthcare with Medicaid changes. 2 additional suspects arrested, charged in Graysville fatal house fire 'It doesn't matter if you have Blue Cross Blue Shield, or some type of private insurance coverage,' Smith said of premiums. 'You aren't insulated from this bill. Everybody's gonna be impacted if this bill goes through.' That bill also influences education, allowing Pell Grants to be used for short-term workforce training programs, according to the White House. Gordon Stone, executive director of the Higher Education Partnership, said they are watching the bill closely. 'We're watching the Pell Grant. We're watching what it does to our graduate school programs and others, other student access points through the loan rewrite,' Stone said. 'There's a lot of things happening right now at the federal level that are important for all of our institutions.' The bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives and is now moving through the Senate. President Trump has said on social media that he wants to sign the bill into law as soon as possible. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
3 days ago
- The Hill
DC park will close after all for WorldPride weekend
The National Park Service said Friday it would temporarily close the park at the center of Washington's historic LGBTQ neighborhood ahead of the city's annual Pride weekend, moving forward with plans that local officials believed had been scrapped. The temporary closure of DuPont Circle Park came at the request of the U.S. Park Police (USPP), the Park Service said in an order uploaded Friday to its website approving the installation of anti-scale fencing around the park's perimeter through 6 p.m. Sunday. 'Less restrictive measures will not suffice due to the security-based assessment of the USPP that this park area needs to be kept clear,' the Park Service said. In a letter dated June 4, Major Frank Hilsher wrote to Kevin Griess, superintendent of National Mall and Memorial Parks, that the USPP's closure request 'is based solely on several previous years of assaultive, destructive and disorderly behavior exhibited in Dupont Circle during the DC Pride weekend.' 'The USPP maintains that a physical barrier effecting a full closure of Dupont Circle is necessary,' Hilsher wrote, to 'secure the park, deter potential violence, reduce the risk of destructive acts and decrease the need for extensive law enforcement presences.' An earlier letter sent in April to USPP Chief Jessica M.E. Taylor from Pamela A. Smith, chief of Washington's Metropolitan Police Department, recommended that tall no-climb fences be temporarily installed around the park. 'Over the years, DuPont Circle Park has been a popular location for Pride attendees to congregate, despite not being a sanctioned Pride event,' Smith wrote in the letter. 'In the past five years, the Metropolitan Police Department and the United States Park Police have taken proactive steps, including increased police presence and enhanced lighting around the park.' 'However, significant challenges persisted, including unpermitted large gathering with sound equipment, illegal vending and grilling, alcohol use, multiple physical altercation, and vandalism of the historic fountain and statue,' she added. Smith withdrew MPD's request to temporarily close the park earlier this week 'after hearing from community leaders and residents,' she wrote in a June 3 letter to Taylor. In the same letter, Smith pointed to specific disruptions that influenced her initial request, including a 2019 arrest in DuPont Circle Park after parkgoers heard gunshots and vandalism during Pride weekend in 2023 that resulted in roughly $175,000 in damage to the park's more than 100-year-old fountain. The park's closure is another obstacle for those in charge of WorldPride, an international LGBTQ Pride celebration taking place this year in Washington. The Capital Pride Alliance, the organizers of WorldPride DC, have hit several snags related to Trump administration policies that disproportionately affect LGBTQ people. In April, the group issued a travel advisory for transgender visitors from abroad, citing President Trump's executive order recognizing only two sexes, male and female, and a new State Department policy barring trans, nonbinary and intersex Americans from updating the sex designations on their passports. The same month, the Capital Pride Alliance announced it was moving WorldPride events from the Kennedy Center to 'ensure our entire LGBTQ+ community will be welcome' following Trump's takeover of the cultural institution in February. In posts on Truth Social, Trump said drag performances at the Kennedy Center 'will stop' under his leadership and called drag, an art form that is deeply rooted in LGBTQ culture and history, 'anti-American propaganda.' The White House has also declined to issue a proclamation for Pride month. In an emailed statement, the Capital Pride Alliance said it 'is frustrated and disappointed in the National Park Service's decision – again – to close Dupont Circle during the culmination of WorldPride this weekend.' 'This beloved landmark is central to the community that WorldPride intends to celebrate and honor. It's much more than a park, for generations it's been a gathering place for DC's LGBTQ+ community, hosting first amendment assemblies and memorial services for those we lost to the AIDS epidemic and following tragic events like the Pulse nightclub shooting,' the group said. 'This sudden move was made overnight without consultation with the Capital Pride Alliance or other local officials.' No official WorldPride activities were planned in DuPont Circle Park, the Capital Pride Alliance said, 'thus no events will be impacted.' D.C. Councilmember Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2), representing the DuPont Circle neighborhood, said she is 'extremely disappointed and frustrated' that the park will not remain open for Pride weekend. 'This closure is disheartening to me and so many in our community who wanted to celebrate World Pride at this iconic symbol of our city's historic LGBTQ+ community,' Pinto wrote Friday in a post on the social platform X. '. I wish I had better news to share.' 'World Pride will continue this weekend and it will be a time of celebration and commitment to uplift our LGBTQ+ neighbors,' she added.
