The Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission on Thursday approved an administrative stay on its licensing process, a step toward a plan to try for a third time to award licenses.

AMCC Chair Rex Vaughn said it was uncertain whether licenses would be awarded at the next commission meeting on Sept. 19. Vaughn said that depended on what happens at a court hearing scheduled for Sept. 6. Some companies that did not receive licenses have sued the commission and cases are pending in Montgomery County Circuit Court.

Companies have accused the AMCC of violating the state Open Meetings Act by deliberating on and nominating license applicants during a closed meeting. They have also questioned scores the AMCC used to rank the applicants, scores compiled by evaluators recruited by the University of South Alabama.

Vaughn said the AMCC would not redo the scores and would continue to use the scores to help make licensing decisions.

“They will provide us a guideline,” Vaughn said. “They will still be in place. The scoring will not change. How our commission members use those as their guide or as their standard, that has yet to be seen. But the scoring will not change.”

Vaughn said he did not expect the commission to hold another executive session, or closed meeting, to discuss licensing decisions because of the allegations about violating the open meetings act, although he said he did not believe the commission had violated the act.

“More than likely we will not go into another executive session just for the sake of keeping speculation down,” Vaughn said. “Even though absolutely nothing was in error or done under the table at all in our previous executive sessions.

“The law accommodates the commission being able to operate that way, but based on what we’ve been accused of, we probably will not do that again. It will be an open forum from start to finish.”

The Alabama Legislature approved medical marijuana in 2021 and created the AMCC to regulate the business. Ninety companies applied for licenses as cultivators, processors, transporters, dispensers, and testing labs, as well as integrated licenses allowing them to cultivate, process, transport, and dispense. The law places limits on how many licenses can be awarded in each category.

In June, the AMCC awarded 21 licenses, but put those decisions on hold a few days later after announcing that the had found potential inconsistencies in how scores were tabulated.

On Aug. 10, the commission announced that the scores had been corrected and verified and awarded licenses for a second time, with 24 companies being picked. Those included 19 of the 21 companies picked in June, plus five more.

But on Aug. 17, Montgomery County Circuit Judge James Anderson put a temporary hold on the licensing process after hearing claims from companies that the AMCC had violated the Open Meetings Act. Anderson held a hearing on Monday and has scheduled another for Sept. 6.

The judge has said he wants the disputes resolved as quickly as possible.

AMCC officials said earlier this summer they hoped medical cannabis products could be available by the end of this year or early next year. But that was before licensing delays.

“It’s getting more complicated by the day as far as trying to predict the timeline,” Vaughn said Thursday.