Amanda Taylor of Cullman moved out west because the medical marijuana products that doctors said could help her multiple sclerosis and other health problems were not available in Alabama.
Taylor later returned to advocate for medical cannabis in her home state. She keeps a photo from the day she joined Gov. Kay Ivey and others at a ceremony to sign the bill that made medical marijuana legal in Alabama.
But three years after that triumphant moment, Taylor and other patients who need medical marijuana still cannot get it in Alabama.
Lawsuits and other problems have kept the state from issuing the business licenses needed to make and sell the products authorized by the 2021 law.
On Wednesday, Taylor joined several doctors, a former lawmaker, and a former Alabama mayor to call for an end to the legal stalemate.
“Businessmen and politicians are bickering over spoils while we suffer,” Taylor said. “There are people who are sick, suffering, and dying, and no one cares about the patients. It is time for these lawsuits to stop.”
The Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission, set up to regulate the fully intrastate industry, first tried to issue licenses a year ago, but lawsuits and problems with the AMCC’s procedures have kept products from becoming available.
The AMCC has issued licenses to cultivators, processors, transporters, and a state testing lab. But licenses for integrated companies and dispensaries remain on hold, blocked by lawsuits pending in the Montgomery County Circuit Court and the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals.
AMCC officials had said they hoped products would be available this year, but the litigation makes that uncertain.
A group called the Patients Coalition for Medical Cannabis held the event Wednesday in Montgomery and organizers said they will hold similar events in Mobile, Birmingham, Huntsville, and Dothan.
Dr. Corey Hebert, a pediatrician from New Orleans and medical professor at Tulane and LSU, said he has seen the how medical cannabis has helped patients in Louisiana. He gave the example of a condition called infantile spasms.
“I’ve watched a mother give their child medical cannabis and the seizures stop for the first time,” Hebert said. “And this was before this mother could get this medicine legally in Louisiana. So, she had to risk going to jail to drive to Colorado so that her child could not have seizures.”
Hebert said medical cannabis is an important treatment for PTSD and can help veterans who suffer from that condition.
Dr. Kirk Kinard, an osteopathic doctor who is president of Pause Pain & Wellness, based in Oxford, Miss., said the company’s clinics have about 20,000 certified medical cannabis patients in Mississippi.
“We’re getting great feedback,” Kinard said. “My mission for Alabama is to bring our brand here so that you can scale up as quick as you can once everybody is through fighting over the legalities of it. It’s time for that to stop and go forward with something.”
Kinard, a member of the Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure, said the first two years of medical cannabis in that state have shown that the products are safe. He said medical cannabis is an important option for treating chronic pain as an alternative to opioids.
“It doesn’t solve all the world’s problems,” Kinard said. “It solves a few very well, though. And the consequences of trying it and it failing are literally moving on to the next option.”
Dr. Marshall Walker of Mobile, whose practice focuses on pain management, said his patients are eager to have the same options as those in other states.
“Cannabis is one of those things that quite frankly I need to fill the gap in pain control for people in Alabama,” Walker said. “My patients bring it up all the time. When are we going to get it, doc? When is it going to happen? Is it ever going to happen? Should I move?”
Walker said a medical cannabis product called Rick Simpson oil helped his mother, an esophageal cancer survivor, deal with the effects of radiation and chemotherapy.
“The Alabama Legislature did what we asked them to do,” Walker said. “Our elected officials delivered what we needed them to deliver. What we now need are the injunctions against us using the law that we have to go away, so we can do the good work like Dr. Kinard is doing in Mississippi and Dr. Hebert is doing in Louisiana.
“Why do our people have to suffer needlessly when on the other side of an imaginary line they don’t have to? It’s not fair to our people.”
Former state Rep. Mike Ball of Madison County, who championed the medical cannabis bill and earlier bills on CBD, and former Mobile Mayor Mike Dow also spoke at Wednesday’s event.
Dow served three years as a machine gunner in Vietnam and is vice president of an organization called Vets Recover.
Dow said a fellow veteran and friend who was quadriplegic almost committed suicide because of an opioid addiction. He said his friend finally got some relief when he switched to THC and was able to sleep.
He said he’s heard many other anecdotes of veterans helped by medical cannabis.
Dow is also a founder of Oscity Labs, which is based in Foley and makes CBD medical products. A related company, Specialty Medical Products of Alabama, was awarded an integrated business license for medical marijuana, but that category of licenses is on hold because of the litigation.
“It’s just time to act,” Dow said. “I’ve been in politics a long time and I understand the issues certainly.”
Dow said he lost a son who was mentally ill to suicide. He said his son told him that the only time he got relief was from THC and mushrooms.”
“I think back to my son giving me that awareness,” Dow said. “And it’s just time to act. It’s time to stop playing all the games and stop acting so befuddled about this. And get back to the truth.”
Taylor, a cosmetologist, said she asked her doctors years ago if medical cannabis could provide some relief for her multiple medical problems, which she said include MS, gastroparesis, type I diabetes, and PTSD. They told her it could but gave little hope that it would ever be available in Alabama.
“I packed up everything that I could fit in my car,” Taylor said. “And I literally became a medical refugee. And I went out west.”
Taylor, who said her weight had dropped below 90 pounds, moved first to California, then to Flagstaff, Ariz., where she landed a job in a medical marijuana dispensary. Taylor said she grew stronger from the medicine and documented the experiences of other patients that she talked to. She hiked in the mountains and recorded her thoughts in journals, and prayed about what she should do next in her life.
Taylor said God gave her a vision that she should return to Alabama and speak to the Legislature and a medical cannabis study commission and go door-to-door speaking to lawmakers. She said helped change some hard-core “no” votes to help pass the legislation. She keeps a framed photo of the day the bill passed the House. Ball was the House sponsor of the legislation, which was sponsored by Sen. Tim Melson, R-Florence.
Taylor said it is time to put the legislation to work for the people it was supposed to help.
“Who are these lawsuits serving?” Taylor said. “They’re not serving the patient. I’ve been suffering for three years. If it was all about me, I would have stayed in Arizona, where I had the keys to the kingdom. Literally had my own set of keys to the dispensary.”
“Where is the compassion that was promised? I see no compassion. I see greed.”
The law allows companies to make gummies, tablets, capsules, tinctures, patches, oils, and other forms of medical marijuana products. Patients who receive a medical cannabis card will be able to buy the products at licensed dispensaries.
The products can be used to treat a wide range of conditions, including chronic pain, weight loss and nausea from cancer, depression, panic disorder, epilepsy, muscle spasms caused by disease or spinal cord injuries, PTSD, and others.
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