Montgomery County Circuit Judge James Anderson on Thursday issued a new temporary restraining order to block the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission from issuing licenses needed to fully launch the new industry.

Anderson’s ruling follows arguments by lawyers representing the AMCC and multiple companies in a July 2 hearing in the long-running and complex litigation.

Anderson said companies suing the commission have shown a reasonable chance of succeeding on their claims that the AMCC did not follow its own scoring, averaging and ranking rules when awarding licenses, and that AMCC’s investigative hearing process, intended to be an appeal remedy for companies denied licenses, does not comply with a state law called the Alabama Administrative Procedures Act.

Anderson, as he said he planned do at the July 2 hearing, denied the AMCC’s motion to dismiss the latest complaint filed by Alabama Always, a Montgomery company that applied for but was not awarded an integrated license. More than 30 companies applied for integrated licenses, but the AMCC can issue only five.

The AMCC has awarded licenses three times, in June, August, and December of last year. The AMCC rescinded the June and August awards because of problems with its procedures and the litigation.

“Again, the court is sympathetic to the public interest in getting medicine in the hands of patients,” Anderson wrote in his order. “That said, the December 12 awards are the Commission’s third round of licensing awards at issue, and the prior two award rounds remain the subject of ongoing litigation – meaning that the Commission’s effort to issue licenses now, is already on uneven ground.”

Anderson wrote that his intent is to preserve the rights of all the companies applying for licenses.

The AMCC has issued licenses for cultivators, processors, secure transporters, and a state testing lab. But licenses for the integrated companies, which figure to the largest companies in the business, and for dispensaries are, on hold.

Cultivators are growing the plants for the medical cannabis products, but there is no way to get products to patients until more of the litigation is resolved.

The AMCC met Thursday and approved some changes to its regulations in response to a bill that removed the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries from the responsibility for regulating the cultivators. The Department of Agriculture supported that change. The AMCC assumes that full responsibility.

The AMCC heard from patient advocates, including Amanda Taylor of Cullman, and former state Rep. Mike Ball of Huntsville, the House sponsor of the medical marijuana bill that passed in 2021 and a longtime proponent of the benefits of medical cannabis.

“What we’re trying to do, it was birthed in compassion,” Ball said. “It’s very important to get this industry up and operating in a transparent manner. But the purpose of it is people who are suffering who can be helped. And there are untold numbers of them. We are just starting with this. And I’m really looking to get these knots untied and get this underway so people can be helped. That’s what this is about.”

Taylor, a leader for a new patients advocacy organization, said she continuously hears from people in need of the medicine.

“It has really broken my heart. I receive at least 45 phone calls a day of people who are in dire need,” Taylor said.

Cynthia Atkinson, who has advocated for medical cannabis since before the law passed, attended Thursday’s AMCC meeting. Atkinson’s husband, longtime WSFA TV meteorologist Dan Atkinson, received relief from symptoms of Parkinson’s when they went to Colorado to try medical cannabis. Dan Atkinson died in 2017.

“It’s been heartbreaking,” Atkinson said. “Alabama patients are the ones that are suffering.”

“Personally, I don’t blame the commission. They’re trying to do their job. Unfortunately, throughout the country, most of the states end up in litigation. And so it takes a while.”

Atkinson said her husband, who had Parkinson’s and diabetes, was on seven medications when they started researching medical marijuana in 2014. They went to Colorado the next year.

“We tried different methods. We found the patch, the medicinal patch, worked beautifully for him,” Atkinson sad. “And for almost two weeks, when he had the patch on, he didn’t have to have the pain medicine. It relaxed his muscles. It kept the cramping, it kept the pain away.”

AMCC Chairman Rex Vaughn said he is appreciative of the efforts of advocates like Ball, Taylor, and Atkinson to stress the urgency of making the medication available.

“Our big hangup right now is we can’t issue dispensary licenses or integrated facility licenses,” Vaughn said. “That’s kind of where we’re hung. So, anytime we can find a way to resolve those shortcomings, we would love to do so. But as long as litigation is going on we will have to work within the circuit court’s demands. We feel like we’ve done that.”

“We believe we are sound in our judgement in the way we have awarded licenses and we believe that those awarded should be issued,” Vaughn said. “Certainly we would all like to move quicker.”

The law passed in 2021, called the Compassion Act, 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 who obtains certification to recommend the products will be able to buy them at licensed dispensaries.

The law allows the products to 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.