The arguments over how to fix the medical marijuana delay in Alabama moved from the courthouse to the State House on Wednesday, when about a dozen people spoke at a public hearing on a bill intended to resolve the stalemate.

Most who spoke were against the bill, which would increase the number of business licenses issued by the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission.

The AMCC awarded licenses in June, August, and December of last year, but rescinded the first two rounds of awards because of problems with its procedures and because of lawsuits. Two categories of licenses from the December awards remain on hold, stalling the process of making medical marijuana products and getting them to patients.

Licenses are for cultivating, processing, transporting, testing, and dispensing medical cannabis, plus integrated licenses, which allow companies to cultivate, process, transport and dispense.

The competition for the integrated licenses has been the main point of contention.

Under the law the Legislature passed in 2021, the AMCC can issue a maximum of five integrated licenses. More than 30 companies applied, and some of those denied licenses filed lawsuits, alleging the AMCC violated the open meetings law, the state administrative procedures act, and made other missteps.

SB276 by Sen. David Sessions, a Republican from Mobile County, would require the AMCC to award 15 integrated licenses.

Sessions’ bill would require the AMCC to issue a license to every company that was awarded, but not issued, licenses in June, August, and December.

That would increase the number of licenses for processors from four to six, and the number of licenses for dispensaries from four to seven.

The licenses for integrated companies and dispensaries are on hold now because of the lawsuits, which are consolidated in a case in Montgomery County Circuit Court.

The AMCC has issued licenses for cultivators, processors, transporters, and a testing lab. But the industry cannot start because of the stalemate over the other licenses.

A two-time cancer survivor spoke at the public hearing Wednesday and urged lawmakers to resolve the stalemate to provide patients an alternative to powerful prescription painkillers.

Other speakers at the public hearing, including owners of some of the companies seeking licenses and lawyers for those companies, said they agreed with the need to end the delays but said SB276 was not the answer. Opponents to the bill included some whose companies would receive licenses if the bill passed.

One of the main arguments against the bill was that it would be unfair to companies that have invested money and time in competing for the licenses under the rules and maximum number of licenses established under the law, enacted in 2021. They said it would be unfair to change the rules now.

John Reeves, one of the owners of CRC Alabama, which received a cultivator license and is growing cannabis at its facility in Goshen, said his company would have applied for an integrated license had they known 15 would be available instead of five.

Reeves and other speakers said tripling the number of integrated companies would oversaturate the market. They said demand for the products, at least initially, would not justify having that many companies growing cannabis, making the products, and selling them. They said the number of licenses could be adjusted later, if necessary, to meet market demand.

Others said an unintended consequence would be an overproduction that would lead to cannabis being diverted to illegal markets, which they said has happened in other states.

Sessions, the bill’s sponsor, is chair of the Senate Agriculture, Conservation, and Forestry Committee, which held the public hearing. He said he was disappointed that so many of the speakers wanted to hold the limits on the number of licenses because of concerns about the market.

Sessions is a farmer who said he had to stop growing cotton because he could no longer compete in the market.

“We would think we would want to be in a free market,” Sessions said.

He did not ask the committee to vote on the bill Wednesday.

“The good thing about this is all of a sudden you have a lot of people interested in trying to figure out how to fix this and get the thing up and running,” Sessions said. “So we’ll see what happens.”

Sessions said there might be a substitute bill in the committee next week.

“My goal is to try to get ‘em out of litigation and get the product to the patients that need it,” Sessions said.

Read more: Alabama’s medical marijuana program on hold at least another month