No Smoking, No Joking: Alabama’s Medical Marijuana Law Examined

Flowering bud (female) of the Cannabis Sativa plant, aka “marijuana”

There are 49 other states to which Alabama could turn to examine what works, and what does not, and could emulate the best of the best.

But, Alabama’s gonna’ Alabama, regardless of who, or what party’s in office.

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Alabama patient advocates may have celebrated following “Guvnah Memaw’s” signature on the “Darren Wesley ‘Ato’ Hall Compassion Act” sponsored by Republican State Senator Dr. Tim Melson, MD (District 1).

But now, reality is about to set in.

The law, like so many others, is a fiasco. Citizens should rejoice the legislature cannot figure out how to connive and wheedle a gambling scheme to benefit themselves, or their “Big Mule” cronies.

Superficially, the “compassion act” sounds good.

That’s where it stops.

The law leaves patients high and dry when it comes to protecting them, and:

• Allows them to be fired without recourse, denied UC benefits, and denied Worker’s Comp benefits “regardless of the individual’s impairment or lack of impairment resulting from the use of medical cannabis.” {page 15, line 20, §20-2A-6(a)(10)} {page 16, line 13, §20-2A-6(a)(11)(c)}

But then, patient abandonment & neglect is Alabama’s forte.

• Allows DHR to remove children from a patient’s household, and states that the agency shall not be prohibited from “considering a parent or caretaker’s use of medical cannabis as a factor for determining the welfare of a child.” {page 16, line 19, §20-2A-6(a)(11)(d)}

• Penalizes diversion much more harshly than trafficking <500lbs of marijuana – 2 to 20 years vs 5 years + $50,000 fine, respectively. {Section 13A-12-231(1)(a)&(b)}

• Automatically suspends the driver’s license of “any person who is recommended a daily dosage of medical cannabis that exceeds 75 mg… regardless of whether he or she holds a valid medical cannabis card.” {page 99, line 9, Section 6}

• Taxes collected, over and above the board’s operating expenses, less 10%, will go to… The General Fund. {page 22, line 18, §20-2A-10(3)(c)}

No surprise there. It’s Alabama’s slush fund.

• Has an even number of voting board members (12), assuring deadlock on any matter, and failure. And, members are already chosen: “Initial members appointed not later than July 1, 2021.” {page 23, line 16, §20-2A-20(a)}

Allows board member appointments by:

1.) Governor-3, MD/DO, RPh, Banker-farm lending;
2.) Lieutenant Governor-3, MD/DO-pediatrician, Attorney-health law, Biochemist;
3.) President Pro Tempore of the Senate-2, MD/DO-oncologist, farmer-crop development;
4.) Speaker of the House of Representatives-2, mental health/substance abuse counselor, farmer-agriculture systems management;
5.) Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries-1, agronomist/agriculture-horticulture production;
6.) State Health Officer-1, unspecified;
7.) Attorney General-1 non-voting, unspecified, and;
8.) Secretary of the Alabama State Law Enforcement Agency-1 non-voting, unspecified.
{page 23, line 12, Article 2, §20-2A-20}

Nope, no political payback at work there. None at all.

But, why no Registered Nurses? They must not be important. If they were, the politicians would have put at least one on the board. But they didn’t. Shows you what they think about them.

And since most legal grow operations are indoors and environmentally-controlled, I wonder who has that level of large-scale experience in Alabama. And banksters won’t touch cannabis money with a 20-foot pole, for fear of stirring up the Feds, or violating money laundering laws.

• Pays board members $500/day+travel expenses, who will likely meet at least 5 days/week, and “shall meet at least six times per year and hold other meetings for any period of time as may be necessary” to do their work. That’s $2500/week+, or $15,000 for 30 days of work – or, $180,000/yr.

On May 12, 2021, Stephen Garrett, Director, Workers’ Compensation Division, issued a memo entitled “State’s Average Weekly Wage” which stated in part that, “On May 11, 2020, in accordance with the provision of Section 25-5-68(c), Code of Alabama 1975, as last amended, the Secretary of Labor determined that the State’s average weekly wage for calendar year 2020 was $983.06.”

• Further, “the commission may employ a director to serve at the pleasure of the commission. The director’s salary shall be fixed by the commission” and not subject to salary provisions of state law – §36-6-6. “The commission may employ an assistant director,” and “the commission may employ additional officers.” And then, the “commission shall retain legal counsel…” {page 27, line 12, §20-2A-20(8)(i)(1); page 28; line 11, §20-2A-20(8)(i)(3)(j); page 29, line 3, line 8}

But violation of any ethical provision in the law only gets a mere wet noodle flogging – a Class C misdemeanor.

It’ll cost taxpayers a minimum of $210,000 annually just to pay the board members. AL’s “Cash Cow” will not be taxes upon cannabis sales, but Cannabis Commission membership. Only AL’s legislators are paid better – $50,000+ for 30 days of work, by state constitutional edict. And they gave themselves another raise this year.

• Absolutely FORBIDS a much less expensive, and simpler dosing administration – smoking raw flower, and growing co-ops – in favor of significantly more expensive, highly processed, preparations.

MN’s patients (AL’s law is partially modeled on MN’s law) complained loud and long about the costly expenses draining their pocketbooks, until their Governor Tim Walz recently allowed access to raw flower to meet their needs, and lighten the costly burden forced upon them by their legislature. Next legislative session, they’ll legalize, tax, and regulate ARU (Adult Recreational Use).

But not Alabama, because:

• “recreational use would pose a risk to public health and safety,”
• “recreational use of marijuana remains a significant threat to public health and safety,”
• “…the danger that recreational cannabis poses,”
• “…the dangers of recreational marijuana.”
• “safeguards to adequately protect the residents of this state are essential.”

And yet, in the thousands-of-years global history of cannabis, “No deaths from overdose of marijuana have been reported,” saith the DEA. Not so of beverage alcohol, water, and most all other OTC and RX meds.

In Oklahoma, now light-heartedly monikered “Toke-lahoma,” the Republican-dominated legislature recently liberalized their failed initial MMJ law, and now it’s working marvelously, for patients, for entrepreneurs, for law enforcement, and for the state’s coffers, because it’s taken a huge chunk out of the black market, constricted criminal cadre, and provided relief and opportunity on a massive scale – significantly greater, even, than CO, CA, WA, OR, and other states combined.

But not Alabama.

Alabama’s latest law is rightly called a “compassion act,” but the ones we should feel sorry for, are Alabama’s sick and suffering, because they’ll not get any relief. Their legislators & “Guvnah Memaw” only pretend to care about them, because they still resolutely refuse to expand Medicaid. That smell is not cannabis, it’s hypocrisy, and stinks much worse.

“There must be some kind of way out of here,
“Said the joker to the thief.
“There’s too much confusion,
“I can’t get no relief.

“Businessmen, they drink my wine,
“Plowmen dig my earth.
“None of them along the line
“Know what any of it is worth.”

Excerpt, “All Along The Watchtower,” 1967, by Robert Zimmerman, aka “Bob Dylan”
Work ID: 908429439