Applicants counting down the days until state issues licenses for medical cannabis

The Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission has narrowed it down to 90 businesses to evaluate before awarding licenses in June.Montgomery has the most applications under consideration, with Birmingham trailing behind in second.

One of those 90 is Wagon Trail Med-Serv in Cullman County. They have applied for an integrated facility license. 38 businesses have been selected to be reviewed by the state for an integrated facility license, but the state will only award five.

Joey Robertson, the president of Wagon Trail Med-Serv, described the moment he found out his businesses advance to the review part of the process.

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"We are definitely counting the days. It’s been a minimum 2 year process working on this and getting everything ready for those applications. To see everything actually move through at this point is surreal," explained Robertson. "That was a make it or break it moment yesterday. If they had decided we hadn't met all the requirements, and fixed everything to move forward, our journey was done."

Robertson said the application process wasn't for the faint of heart. Their application was 1600 pages, and cost the business around $500,000 in the process. That includes obtaining the properties for the five dispensaries they'd open in five other counties if granted the license.

"Infrastructure wise, we are already several million dollars in on infrastructure in the hemp industry, but we will be expanding that exponentially," said Robertson.

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"Everything from three-five year business plan, showing the funding was there, a major thing was showing you had 51 percent majority and 15 years of Alabama residency.Your growing experience cultivating experiencing showing you had the grow experience of 15 years as well. Past that, blue prints, floor plans, security plans, standards, operating procedures for every part of the business," said Robertson.

Wagon Trail Med-Serv would open dispensaries in Montgomery, Cullman, Lauderdale, Limestone, and Morgan counties. The plan would be to hire 50 employees immediately following getting the license to helping with cultivating and security, and an additional 104 in the first two years of operation. They will have to grow everything indoors.

"We are going after the integrated license which is us going from seed to sale. Starting the seed, growing the plants, making oil products, and then securely transporting those to our dispensaries where we will sell our products," said Robertson.

If they are granted a license on June 12, they expect to issue their first medical cannabis product by the end of the year or early 2024. For Robertson, it's a product that's become a passion.

If we can provide medicine that helps people in the state and provide affordable access to them, it's well worth it.

Public comments in favor or opposed to granting a license to a particular applicant must be made electronically through the AMCC website. The Commission will accept public comments until May 14.