Attorneys withdraw from Cannabis Commission lawsuits

The Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission appears to be ending its relationship with the Montgomery law firm that has represented it since the commission’s inception.

In a motion filed last week in Montgomery Circuit Court, the law firm Webster, Henry, Cohan, Speagle, DeShazo and Bankston, P.C., moved to withdraw as counsel of record for the AMCC in ongoing medical cannabis litigation.

The firm was hired as outside counsel shortly after the AMCC was formed and played an integral role in developing the licensing process that has led to years of delays and lawsuits, many of which remain pending.

The AMCC, along with its internal legal counsel and outside counsel, has faced significant criticism for failing to properly establish a licensing process that met state requirements. Those failures delayed patients’ access to medical marijuana for more than five years.

The state passed its medical marijuana law in May 2021. The first patients received products earlier this month.

Those delays were caused primarily by lawsuits challenging the flawed way the AMCC conducted its licensing process and the manner in which the agency handled public meetings. A State Examiners of Public Accounts audit earlier this year listed a number of problems, including violations of the Alabama Open Meetings Act, failure to follow the Alabama Administrative Procedure Act and payments to Webster, Henry, Cohan, Speagle, DeShazo and Bankston that significantly exceeded the amount of the original contract.

Those flaws allowed companies that were denied licenses to successfully challenge the process in court and resulted in the AMCC repeatedly having to restart the licensing process.

To date, licenses for integrated facilities—the most sought-after licenses—still have not been officially awarded.

The one thing the commission has done, however, is pay legal fees. The process, with its flaws, missteps and repeated delays, has cost taxpayers millions of dollars. Numerous legal matters remain unresolved.