More than two-dozen lawyers packed the front rows in the courtroom of Montgomery County Circuit Judge James Anderson on Tuesday for a two-and-a-half hour hearing to find a path through the maze of litigation over business licenses for Alabama’s medical marijuana industry.

The hearing ended with a plan for the next steps in the cases but no resolution to the issues delaying the availability of medical cannabis products.

About 30 companies are involved in the lawsuits over competition for the licenses. The state law authorizing medical marijuana limited the number of licenses, and many companies denied licenses sued to challenge the procedures, rules, and decisions of the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC), which the Legislature created to oversee the new industry.

Anderson said Tuesday he would deny the AMCC’s motion to dismiss a main new case in the litigation. The judge said he would look for guidance from lawyers on all sides of the disputes to develop a new temporary restraining order on the licensing process.

Anderson said his intent with a new restraining order would be to continue a hold on the AMCC issuing certain licenses while allowing the AMCC to proceed with investigative hearings requested by companies denied licenses. Some companies denied licenses say the hearings will be futile because the AMCC has already awarded the licenses.

Most of the lawsuits involve applicants for integrated licenses, companies that can cultivate, process, transport, and dispense medical cannabis, which figure to be the biggest firms in the new industry. More than 30 companies applied for integrated licenses but the AMCC can issue only five.

Also on hold are licenses for companies that want to serve only as dispensaries. The AMCC has issued licenses for cultivators, processors, transporters, and a state testing lab. But doctors cannot begin recommending the products until at least the dispensary licenses are issued.

There was some talk at Tuesday’s hearing about resolving the dispensary issues to clear the way for beginning to get products to patients. Anderson said he would consider a request to lift the order blocking the dispensary licenses while the disputes over integrated licenses continue.

It has been more than three years since the Legislature passed the Compassion Act, a bill that allows medical marijuana products for patients suffering from chronic pain, nausea and weight loss from cancer treatments, muscle spasms caused by Parkinson’s and other conditions, PTSD, panic disorder, and other conditions.

Doctors, patients, and companies that have received licenses have called for an end to the litigation so that products can become available.

Alabama Always, which has built a cultivation and processing plant in Montgomery but was denied a license to be an integrated company, filed a new lawsuit on Monday asking the judge to issued a temporary restraining order to prevent the AMCC from issuing licenses to the five companies it picked for integrated licenses in December.

Alabama Always and other companies denied licenses claim that the AMCC has not followed the Compassion Act, the Alabama Administrative Procedures Act, and the Open Meetings Act in its efforts to award licenses.

The AMCC awarded licenses in June 2023 and in August 2023 and rescinded those decisions both times because of litigation and problems with its procedures.

The AMCC adopted new rules after a mediation agreement. The AMCC awarded licenses again in December 2023. The AMCC issued licenses for cultivators, processors, secure transporters and a state testing lab based on those decisions in December. But the licenses for integrated companies and dispensaries remain on hold.

Anderson said the Legislature’s decision to limit the number of licenses in certain categories, like the integrated licenses, made it difficult for those companies denied licenses to have a fair way to challenge those decisions.

For example, Alabama Always and other companies say the investigative hearings that the AMCC plans to hold for denied applicants will be meaningless if they AMCC has already awarded all five licenses in that category. The AMCC maintains the final decisions on the licenses will not come until after the hearings.

Anderson said he wanted more assurances that companies denied licenses would have a meaningful way to appeal and that companies awarded licenses had a way to protect their interests in an appeal process.

Cultivators that received licenses are already growing the cannabis for the medical products.