Lawyers representing the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission plan to meet with lawyers representing companies suing the commission and discuss some of the next steps in the litigation following a judge’s recommendation.

Mark Wilkerson, an attorney for the AMCC, gave commission members an update on the lawsuits during a virtual meeting Thursday.

Most of the litigation has been filed by companies that were denied licenses to participate in the state’s new industry. The AMCC rescinded license awards it made in June and in August because of its own mistakes and because of the lawsuits.

Now, a third round of license awards made in December under a different set of rules and procedures is facing legal challenges. Some of the challenges are from companies awarded licenses earlier that did not make the cut during the latest round of awards.

The process is contentious because there are more applicants than there are licenses available.

Montgomery County Circuit Judge James Anderson has consolidated most of the lawsuits under a master case filed by Alabama Always, a Montgomery-based company that was denied an integrated license.

There are six categories of licenses: cultivator, processor, transporter, testing lab, dispensary, and integrated. Integrated licensees will cultivate, process, transport and dispense.

The AMCC has issued licenses for cultivators, processors, transporters, and a testing lab.

Anderson has issued a temporary restraining to block the issuance of licenses in the dispensary and integrated categories.

Anderson granted the requests of Alabama Always and Insa Alabama, which was also denied an integrated license, for expedited discovery, which would allow the companies to take depositions from commissioners and AMCC staff and to obtain documents about the licensing decisions, including communications between the commissioners and third parties.

The AMCC is hoping to block or limit the discovery process.

Anderson held a virtual hearing for lawyers in the case on Thursday.

Wilkerson said the judge asked the parties in the case to confer informally and try to reach an agreement on the scope of discovery and on the depositions and written documents that would be provided.

Wilkerson said he expects the lawyers to report to the judge at a hearing scheduled for Jan. 24.

About a half-dozen companies have asked the judge to issue a preliminary injunction blocking the issuance of licenses.

Wilkerson said he does not expect the court to hold a hearing on the preliminary injunction request until some time in February.

Officials have said medical marijuana products could be available later this year if the licenses process can be finished.

The Legislature approved medical marijuana in 2021. Alabama was the 37th state to approve medical cannabis.

The law created the AMCC to oversee seed-to-sale regulation of the industry, which is intended to operate fully intrastate.

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 from a doctor 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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