Cannabis News

Trulieve Cannabis Corp., the largest fully licensed medical cannabis company in Florida, announced May 10 its definitive arrangement agreement for the acquisition of Arizona-based Harvest Health and Recreation Inc., in a $2.1-billion deal.

Primarily a vertically integrated “seed-to-sale” company, Trulieve touted the all-stock transaction as one that creates the most profitable multistate operator in the U.S. Harvest Health and Recreation, a multistate operator in its own right, has a retail and wholesale footprint that recorded continued growth over the past decade.

The handshake was not surprising as far as merger-and-acquisition activity in the cannabis space, which has been hot and heavy since the November 2020 election, but the whopping price tag attached to the deal was a head-turner, said Jonathan Havens, a partner at Saul, Ewing, Arnstein and Lehr’s Philadelphia-based law firm. He counsels clients on transactional matters in the cannabis industry.

“This is a big deal. The price tag is obviously quite notable,” Havens said. “But look, the M&A, the deal activity in the cannabis space, has been hot for a while and I think will continue to be hot. The price tag here is big. Trulieve is a very strong operator with a strong balance sheet, which gives them the opportunity to go out and make acquisitions like this.”

RELATED: M&A Uptick Expected to Continue in 2021

Flower continues to be the dominant product category in US cannabis sales. In this “Flower-Side Chats” series of articles Green interviews integrated cannabis companies and flower brands that are bringing unique business models to the industry. Particular attention is focused on how these businesses navigate a rapidly changing landscape of regulatory, supply chain and consumer demand.

Canndescent is a vertically integrated flower brand based out of Santa Barbara, CA with grow operations in Desert Hot Springs. Having opened the first municipally-permitted cultivation in California, Canndescent has pioneered luxury branding in the cannabis space with a focus on user friendliness. They were the first cultivator to market cannabis using effects like Calm, Cruise Create, Connect, and Charge rather than the strain name. Canndescent also recently launched a social equity brand, Justice Joints, with 100% of all profits going to cannabis-related expungement and re-entry programs.

We spoke with Adrian Sedlin, CEO and founder of Canndescent to learn more about his transition from tech to cannabis, how he thinks about product positioning and the company’s motivation for getting into Justice Joints. Adrian founded Canndescent in 2015 after being approached by his brother-in-law who ran a legacy cultivation operation. Prior to Canndescent, Adrian was an entrepreneur and worked in startup turnarounds.

Aaron Green: How did you get involved in the cannabis industry?

Adrian Sedlin: I started looking at the industry from a professional perspective in 2015, and once I came to understand how cannabis affects the endocannabinoid system, I became absolutely fascinated by the opportunity to build a world class cannabis company that prioritized consumers. Particularly, I became interested in the adult-use market because I see cannabis as an automobile compared to the horse and buggy of alcohol. Cannabis is a superior adult use solution from a health and society perspective, yet, the entire positioning of the industry at the time was sub-prime, non-aspirational and inaccessible. With Canndescent, the core idea was to counterprogram the existing paradigm and deliver cannabis in a way that was beautiful. To bring the power of the plant to more people, we had to reposition the category and simplify the shopping experience. Moreover, there were too many unsolved consumer problems. For example, in 2015 people said cannabis was a commodity but any stoner knows there are as many dimensions to consider as there are with wine. The opportunity to deliver consumer solutions in a nascent industry that desperately needed advocates while helping to improve the world was enough to get me out of retirement.

Green: Just curious, what was your background prior to cannabis?

Sedlin: I’m a lifelong entrepreneur. I started my first company when I was still in college. After graduation, I ran that business for another four and a half years, sold it, and went back to business school and got my MBA. After Harvard, most of my career was spent in early-stage growth companies, turnarounds and pivots. When someone had $10 million invested in an enterprise or their company wasn’t growing at the rate they wanted, that’s when my phone would ring.

I was lucky enough to shepherd a number of companies to a successful exit several times. During my professional journey, I’d taken a year and a half off between 2004 and 2006, and then pre-cannabis in 2015 I had taken three years off and was getting a little itchy. I didn’t think I was permanently retired; I was just sort of waiting for the next thing to get excited about. And cannabis definitely was the first time I can say in my life that I finally understood what I was put on planet earth to do.

Green: I understand that Canndescent was the first municipally permitted cultivator to open in California?

Sedlin: Desert Hot Springs was the first city to legalize cultivation, and we were the first ones to operate in the city.

Green: How did that come about?

Sedlin: The city had conditional use permits, but a lot of people were trying to do ground up builds. We decided to do a retrofit of an existing facility. So, we were the first ones to get the regulatory permit and cultivate in a way that was truly compliant with MCRSRA which eventually became MAUCRSA.

It took lots of tolerance for ambiguity and incredible patience. There’s an off-putting expression that goes, “pioneers take the arrows.” Well, we took a lot of arrows along the way. A perfect example is within our first year of operation, the fire department sent us five cease-and-desist orders to turn off our CO₂. Not because we were doing anything wrong, but because they changed their regulations and then they wanted us to immediately comply as opposed to giving us a transition period. You just got to learn to roll with it. I’d say anyone who got into the regulated cannabis market early – and there’s a bunch of us who are still standing – you just learn to roll with it, be patient and yet, apply boundless energy and passion to the process.

Green: Did you know you wanted to be in Desert Hot Springs? Or did it just turn out to be the permit that was the easiest to get?

Sedlin: That was a binary choice for us. The simple choice for Desert Hot Springs was that it was the only choice. We were doing a professional execution. We were taking investment dollars, and I couldn’t have any ambiguity of being in the gray market. This was before adult use legislation passed in California, so we were functioning under California’s Medical Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (MCRSA). The only way to be compliant with MCRSA at the time and be a medical cannabis cultivator was to get city-based permission or county-based permission, and the first region to authorize that was Desert Hot Springs. From our team’s perspective, wanting to build a truly compliant company from day one, that was the only choice available.

Green: I understand your facilities are powered by solar?

Sedlin: We have several facilities. One of them is a greenhouse that has light supplementation. We have an indoor facility that is powered by solar. When we opened the facility, it didn’t have a solar project on it. After we opened it, about a year and a half later, we did this full solar retrofit. We found the solar panels offset 38% of our energy consumption.

Green: Your product marketing is effect-forward. How did you come to that positioning for the brand and for the products?

Sedlin: The idea is to simplify life for consumers and unburden them from having to understand the 6,000 different strain names that are out there which have no consistency from cultivator to cultivator.  Before Apple popularized the graphical user interface for computers, the standing orthodoxy among engineers at the time was that everyone should have to learn how to code. Everyone who wanted to use a computer needed to go through the mind-numbing MS-DOS process. But computers didn’t scale that way. Apple’s genius is that it built technology to serve humans with a GUI and didn’t put humans in service of the technology. Similarly, you shouldn’t have to learn 6,000 strains, 100+ terpenes and 100+ cannabinoids to make your first purchase. Our goal has always been to put cannabis in service of consumers as opposed to having the consumer in service of cannabis.

To be clear, Apple doesn’t dumb things down. Apple makes things easier, so that more people adopt them, so those things can then get better. And, that’s really how we’ve always viewed it. At the end of the day, I’m not sure if a consumer needs to know that he or she loves AK-47 when one can understand loosely, “How do I want to feel? Am I trying to relax? What am I trying to achieve?” It’s about prioritizing the consumer over the engineer, or in this case the cultivator or breeder, who covets naming rights. We operate with a consumer-centric philosophy and our company is in service of the consumer.

Green: You have a social equity brand called Justice Joints. What was your motivation for that line?

Sedlin: We have the luxury and privilege of participating in a legal cannabis industry, but there are many people who were never afforded that choice and suffered a steep cost.  With this in mind, we need to put our dollars and sweat into helping communities most impacted and marginalized by the war or drugs and doing our part to address some of the damage.  Justice Joints (JJ), our brand where 100% of the profits go to cannabis-related social equity and expungement programs invites the cannabis community, dispensaries and consumers to vote with their dollars for a better world. “Here’s a vehicle where 100% of the profit goes to cannabis related social justice causes. Are you in? Or are you out?” It gives consumers a platform where they can participate in positive change with their dollars.  It’s what the plant is about.

JJ was the right answer for Canndescent because we wanted to build a self-sustaining economic engine for social justice. We launch world class cannabis brands so building one for social justice was the right choice for us and provided a way for all 250 of our employees to give back and feel proud each and every day.  Justice Joints isn’t a side project; it’s hardwired into the daily activities of Canndescent and will hopefully evolve into an industry-wide, give back platform.

Green: What’s one thing in the world that you want to change or inspires you the most?

Sedlin: The thing I’m most interested in professionally is popularizing the practice of gratitude into the broader business and social fabric. Canndescent is the first company that I know of to incorporate gratitude as a core value. We do so because we believe that happiness is a mindset and a choice, not an outcome. It’s not how many likes you get on your social media, or how much money you make. It’s how you frame your experience to yourself that makes you happy.

On any given day, there’s 100 things I can bitch about, but that just becomes poison ivy that itches and that would make me angry, frustrated and depleted. Living and acting in gratitude, we can move our minds to a peaceful and productive place where we have control and can be our best self for those around us. For example, I just lost my dad on Thursday but I’m focused on gratitude not sorrow. My dad was awesome, died peacefully at age 89, had a 60-year marriage, and loved and gave love. Naturally, there is sadness, but instead of sinking into that, I focus on the blessing of him and meditate on the good. Operating from a happy place, I’m freed up mentally to be there for my mom, sister, wife, children, employees and investors.

So that’s what I’m passionate about. It’s not so much something I want to learn about as much as it is something that I want to cultivate in the world. There would just be more happiness in the world if humanity exercised the muscle of perspective–gratitude. It’s the greatest time in human history to be alive. To listen to the world around us, it’s natural to forget that. But, I’ll take Covid-19 over the Black Plague and Spanish Influenza anyday. “Yes, shit happens, but are you a shit talker and complainer, or are you the type to say, let’s clean this up.” It’s a choice. Canndescent wants to project light and build a world of gratitude.

Green: That concludes the interview, thanks Adrian!

The Trulieve-Harvest deal shows that the cannabis industry is maturing and pursuing more targeted, strategic acquisitions rather than the land grab of early 2019, said Sander C. Zagzebski, a member at Clark Hill, a multidisciplinary, international law firm. Based in California, Zagzebski represents clients in mergers, acquisitions, dispositions and other change-of-control transactions.

“This is the latest, and largest, in a series of significant recent deals, starting with Curaleaf’s acquisition of Grassroots and followed by Verano’s deal with AltMed, Ayr’s acquisition of Liberty Health, Columbia Care’s deal with Green Leaf, and BRND’s deal with Glass House,” Zagzebski said. “These deals, along with Cresco’s $1-billion shelf registration and GTI’s recent debt announcement, show a renewed bullishness on the part of leading cannabis companies to go for the win after playing defense since late 2019.”

Recent M&A enthusiasm is not only buoyed by the November 2020 elections, but also by the excitement around New York’s legalization, the recently announced legislation in Texas and other states, and the hope that the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act may finally be signed into law, Zagzebski said.

As operators like Harvest get stronger and amass more licenses under their belts for a bigger footprint, they’re going to become attractive to potential acquirers, Havens said.

“And that’s what you saw here,” he said. “Harvest is obviously a big operation, as is Trulieve. Combined, it’s going to be quite a big player in the space.”

Minutes before Trulieve announced the acquisition, Harvest reported its first-quarter 2021 financial results, highlighting $88.8 million in revenue—up 101% from $44.2 million in the first quarter of 2020. The first-quarter revenue results also represent a 27% increase compared to $69.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2020.

As of March 31, Harvest owned, operated or managed 37 retail locations in six states. Meanwhile, Trulieve is a licensed operator in Florida, California, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Upon completion of the Trulieve-Harvest transaction, as well as the closing of other previously announced acquisitions by Harvest and Trulieve, the combined business will have operations in 11 states, comprising 22 cultivation and processing facilities with a total capacity of 3.1 million square feet, and 126 dispensaries serving both the medical and adult-use cannabis markets, according to Trulieve.

“What’s interesting about the cannabis space is, because of the regulatory requirements, you’re going to continue to see mergers and acquisitions between companies that are in different footprints,” Havens said. “You’re obviously not going to acquire someone that’s in the same footprint you are because there’s limited licenses and you can’t have too many licenses in most jurisdictions. So, you’re going to find a dance partner, a merger partner, who fills the gaps you have in your business, in regions or whole sections of the country where you don’t have licenses.”

The acquisition will not only expand Trulieve’s presence in the Northeast and Southeast but also establish a Southwest hub. On Jan. 22, Harvest recorded the first adult-use cannabis sale in the state of Arizona at its Scottsdale location—Arizona was one of four states where voters passed adult-use cannabis measures in November—and began serving adult-use customers, in addition to medical patients, at all 15 of its Arizona dispensaries that same day.

“Harvest provides us with an immediate and significant presence in new and established markets and accelerates our entry into the adult-use space in Arizona,” Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers said. “Trulieve and Harvest are leaders in our markets, recognized for our innovation, brands and operational expertise with true depth and scale in our businesses. We look forward to providing best-in-class service to patients and customers on a broader national scale as we create an iconic U.S. cannabis brand.”

Based in Florida, Trulieve cultivates and produces all of its products in-house and distributes those products to Trulieve-branded dispensaries throughout the state, as well as directly to patients via home delivery, according to the company.

Under the terms of the acquisition arrangement agreement, shareholders of Harvest will receive 0.117 of a subordinate voting share of Trulieve for each Harvest subordinate voting share (or equivalent) held, representing total consideration of approximately $2.1 billion based on the closing price of the Trulieve shares on May 7.

“We are thrilled to be joining Trulieve, a company that has achieved unrivaled success and scale in its home state of Florida,” Harvest CEO Steve White said in a statement. “As one of the oldest multistate operators, we believe our track record of identifying and developing attractive market opportunities combined with our recent successful launch of adult-use sales in Arizona will add tremendous value to the combined organization as it continues to expand and grow in the coming years.”

With cannabis stocks up significantly from their March 2020 lows, it is safe to expect continued consolidation for the next several quarters, Zagzebski said.

Medical cannabis legislation was first introduced in the Alabama House of Representatives two decades ago. Eight years ago, it was the laughingstock of the lower chamber. Now, a medical cannabis bill has supermajority support.

After a nearly 10-hour filibuster Tuesday, House lawmakers reconvened Thursday and considered several floor amendments before passing the Senate-originated bill, 68-34, which would allow registered patients diagnosed with qualifying conditions to access cannabis. The legislation returned to the Senate for final consideration Thursday night, when the upper chamber voted, 20-9, to concur with the House changes.

The legislation, Senate Bill 46, now heads to Republican Gov. Kay Ivey’s desk. In a statement from Ivey’s office Thursday night, press secretary Gina Maiola said the governor looks forward to thoroughly reviewing the bill and providing the diligence it deserves, but did not say whether she would sign it.

If Ivey provides the ink, Alabama will become the 37th medical cannabis state, joining the likes of nearby Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi, according to reform organization Marijuana Policy Project (MPP).

“Passing the compassion act will allow seriously ill patients to finally get the relief they deserve,” said Karen O’Keefe, director of state policies at MPP. “Alabama is one of only 14 states in the country that continues to criminalize the medical use of cannabis, and while this bill is more restrictive than is ideal, it is a dramatic improvement from the status quo and would improve the lives of thousands of Alabamians. We urge … Gov. Ivey to sign it into law.”

The Alabama Senate has passed medical cannabis bills three years in a row, but this is the first time the House has passed legislation. Last year, pandemic-related circumstances derailed the lower chamber’s possibility of a vote.

Sponsored by Republican Sen. Tim Melson, S.B. 46 proposes implementing a medical program that would open the application process for potential patients by Sept. 1, 2022. Republican Rep. Mike Ball sponsored the bill in the House.

“When we get in politics, we get down here and we focus our attention on what it is we’re after; we tend to tunnel up and we don’t see the other side very well, and there’s so many aspects of this that has been so difficult,” Ball said on the House floor Thursday, after bearing the brunt of the filibuster, from opponents on his own side of the aisle, two days earlier.

“And, quite frankly, this has caused me to lose my appetite for politics in this whole process,” he said. “And the people who don’t see it, they’re not bad. They’re just not looking at it.”

Eight years earlier, a Democratic bill for medical cannabis that was introduced by former Rep. Patricia Todd won the 2013 “Shroud Award,” given to the “deadest” bill in the House that session, according to the Associated Press.

“They laughed at me,” Todd said, according to the AP. “I’m glad to see it passed. It’s long overdue.”

Final passage didn’t come without nearly three more hours of floor debate and amendment votes on Thursday. Democratic Rep. Laura Hall, 78, said she first introduced medical cannabis legislation to the House two decades ago.

“Twenty years ago, I brought [legislation to the House] in honor of my son, who had just died the year before I was elected, of AIDS,” Hall said. “And I did that with the idea thinking if I could have had access [to medical cannabis]. The only drug that was available to him was a drug called AZT. He could not take that. When he took that medicine, we would have to get up every four hours—that was the regimen to giving him the medication. And he had finally said, ‘Enough is enough. I may get my T cells back and I can function, but I can’t do it on this medication.’”

Azidothymidine (AZT) is an antiretroviral medication used to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS.

Later during the House’s session on Thursday, the chamber voted, 87-3, in favor renaming the legislation “Darren Wesley ‘Ato’ Hall Compassion Act,” as a tribute to Rep. Hall’s son.

While HIV/AIDS-related nausea or weight loss is one of more than a dozen qualifying conditions included in Alabama’s medical cannabis bill, two other conditions in the Senate’s original version of the bill were removed during an emending process in the House Health Committee—fibromyalgia and menopause or premenstrual syndrome (PMS).

That specific amendment was grouped with several other committee amendments as one package, which passed as a single vote Thursday on the House floor, 72-26.

“This amendment is so disappointing to me as a woman, that all of the issues that specifically impact women were taken out in the Health Committee, which is why I’m going to vote against this amendment,” Democratic Rep. Merika Coleman said. “I support [Rep. Ball] and support the concept, but this body sometimes is so disappointing.”

If enacted, S.B. 46 would create a 14-member Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission, which would determine the maximum daily dosages of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) that caregivers could provide patients with each of the qualifying conditions—also including cancer, terminal illness, depression, epilepsy, anxiety or panic disorder, chronic pain, spasticity, autism, Tourette syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder and others.

The new commission would also be responsible for issuing up to five licenses for vertically integrated operators, up to 12 cultivation licenses, no more than four processor licenses and no more than four dispensary licenses. Businesses awarded the dispensary licenses could operate up to three sites in different counties, while vertically integrated operators could have up to five dispensing sites in different counties, according to the bill’s text.

Other housekeeping items the commission would be responsible for include overseeing the patient registry, issuing medical cards and outlining regulations from seed to sale.

Some amendments that were rejected on the House floor were adding a THC dosing cap of 10 milligrams, enacting a zero-tolerance policy for diving under the influence, and revisiting the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission’s authority to provide caregiver’s the right to distribute medical cannabis should the federal government reschedule cannabis, so that patients could instead receive their medical cannabis from pharmacies should federal prohibition end.  

“My concern in this issue, is if we create this large bureaucracy that we’re having, this large board that’s going to be there, that this will never go away,” Republican Rep. Matt Simpson said about the commission’s authoritative arm. “And you could have 49 other states that are going to be able to receive medical marijuana through a licensed pharmacist … but the state of Alabama would be required to go through these dispensaries based on this legislation you have.”

Meanwhile, the bill would prohibit the smoking or vaping of cannabis, as well as processing cannabis into a form that is attractive to or targets children, such as candy or baked goods. Instead, S.B. 46 would limit medical cannabis use to forms such as pills, gelatin cubes, oils, creams and topical patches. Patients could possess up to 70 daily doses of cannabis.

In addition, minors could not use—or be recommended—more than 3% THC. And employers could still drug test and prohibit employees from using cannabis.

Regarding social equity, depending on the business type, either at least one-fourth or one-fifth of all licenses are to be awarded to businesses with at least 51% ownership by individuals of African American, Native American, Asian or Hispanic descent, according to MPP.

The legalization and taxation of recreational marijuana remains one of the hottest trends in state taxation. Currently, 16 states (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, South Dakota, Vermont, and Washington) and the District of Columbia have passed bills or approved ballot measures that allow for the sale of recreational marijuana, and more states are poised to pass legislation this session. In total, actual recreational marijuana sales are happening in 11 states.

The Virginia legislature now has passed a bill that would legalize sales starting in 2024; legislators are currently working with Gov. Ralph Northam (D) to amend and finalize legislation. New Mexico lawmakers are very likely to pass legislation during an ongoing special session.

Voters in four states approved ballot measures in November, but only one state (Arizona) has established an operational marketplace. Vermont, which passed legalization back in 2018, has finally approved legislation, and the state plans to be operational starting in 2022. Recreational sales are delayed due to pending legal action in South Dakota and federal prohibition in the District of Columbia, although change is on the horizon in DC.

The unique legal framework under which marijuana use and sales operate—that of differing state and federal legality—means that every state market is essentially a siloed market. Marijuana products cannot cross state borders, so the entire process (seed to smoke, so to speak) must occur within state borders. This unusual situation, along with the novelty of legalization, has resulted in a wide variety of tax designs.

The following map highlights the states that have legal markets and levy taxes on recreational marijuana.

Medical cannabis legislation was first introduced in the Alabama House of Representatives two decades ago. Eight years ago, it was the laughingstock of the lower chamber. Now, a medical cannabis bill has supermajority support.

After a nearly 10-hour filibuster Tuesday, House lawmakers reconvened Thursday and considered several floor amendments before passing the Senate-originated bill, 68-34, which would allow registered patients diagnosed with qualifying conditions to access cannabis. The legislation returned to the Senate for final consideration Thursday night, when the upper chamber voted, 20-9, to concur with the House changes.

The legislation, Senate Bill 46, now heads to Republican Gov. Kay Ivey’s desk. In a statement from Ivey’s office Thursday night, press secretary Gina Maiola said the governor looks forward to thoroughly reviewing the bill and providing the diligence it deserves, but did not say whether she would sign it.

If Ivey provides the ink, Alabama will become the 37th medical cannabis state, joining the likes of nearby Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi, according to reform organization Marijuana Policy Project (MPP).

“Passing the compassion act will allow seriously ill patients to finally get the relief they deserve,” said Karen O’Keefe, director of state policies at MPP. “Alabama is one of only 14 states in the country that continues to criminalize the medical use of cannabis, and while this bill is more restrictive than is ideal, it is a dramatic improvement from the status quo and would improve the lives of thousands of Alabamians. We urge … Gov. Ivey to sign it into law.”

The Alabama Senate has passed medical cannabis bills three years in a row, but this is the first time the House has passed legislation. Last year, pandemic-related circumstances derailed the lower chamber’s possibility of a vote.

Sponsored by Republican Sen. Tim Melson, S.B. 46 proposes implementing a medical program that would open the application process for potential patients by Sept. 1, 2022. Republican Rep. Mike Ball sponsored the bill in the House.

“When we get in politics, we get down here and we focus our attention on what it is we’re after; we tend to tunnel up and we don’t see the other side very well, and there’s so many aspects of this that has been so difficult,” Ball said on the House floor Thursday, after bearing the brunt of the filibuster, from opponents on his own side of the aisle, two days earlier.

“And, quite frankly, this has caused me to lose my appetite for politics in this whole process,” he said. “And the people who don’t see it, they’re not bad. They’re just not looking at it.”

Eight years earlier, a Democratic bill for medical cannabis that was introduced by former Rep. Patricia Todd won the 2013 “Shroud Award,” given to the “deadest” bill in the House that session, according to the Associated Press.

“They laughed at me,” Todd said, according to the AP. “I’m glad to see it passed. It’s long overdue.”

Final passage didn’t come without nearly three more hours of floor debate and amendment votes on Thursday. Democratic Rep. Laura Hall, 78, said she first introduced medical cannabis legislation to the House two decades ago.

“Twenty years ago, I brought [legislation to the House] in honor of my son, who had just died the year before I was elected, of AIDS,” Hall said. “And I did that with the idea thinking if I could have had access [to medical cannabis]. The only drug that was available to him was a drug called AZT. He could not take that. When he took that medicine, we would have to get up every four hours—that was the regimen to giving him the medication. And he had finally said, ‘Enough is enough. I may get my T cells back and I can function, but I can’t do it on this medication.’”

Azidothymidine (AZT) is an antiretroviral medication used to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS.

Later during the House’s session on Thursday, the chamber voted, 87-3, in favor renaming the legislation “Darren Wesley ‘Ato’ Hall Compassion Act,” as a tribute to Rep. Hall’s son.

While HIV/AIDS-related nausea or weight loss is one of more than a dozen qualifying conditions included in Alabama’s medical cannabis bill, two other conditions in the Senate’s original version of the bill were removed during an emending process in the House Health Committee—fibromyalgia and menopause or premenstrual syndrome (PMS).

That specific amendment was grouped with several other committee amendments as one package, which passed as a single vote Thursday on the House floor, 72-26.

“This amendment is so disappointing to me as a woman, that all of the issues that specifically impact women were taken out in the Health Committee, which is why I’m going to vote against this amendment,” Democratic Rep. Merika Coleman said. “I support [Rep. Ball] and support the concept, but this body sometimes is so disappointing.”

If enacted, S.B. 46 would create a 14-member Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission, which would determine the maximum daily dosages of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) that caregivers could provide patients with each of the qualifying conditions—also including cancer, terminal illness, depression, epilepsy, anxiety or panic disorder, chronic pain, spasticity, autism, Tourette syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder and others.

The new commission would also be responsible for issuing up to five licenses for vertically integrated operators, up to 12 cultivation licenses, no more than four processor licenses and no more than four dispensary licenses. Businesses awarded the dispensary licenses could operate up to three sites in different counties, while vertically integrated operators could have up to five dispensing sites in different counties, according to the bill’s text.

Other housekeeping items the commission would be responsible for include overseeing the patient registry, issuing medical cards and outlining regulations from seed to sale.

Some amendments that were rejected on the House floor were adding a THC dosing cap of 10 milligrams, enacting a zero-tolerance policy for diving under the influence, and revisiting the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission’s authority to provide caregiver’s the right to distribute medical cannabis should the federal government reschedule cannabis, so that patients could instead receive their medical cannabis from pharmacies should federal prohibition end.  

“My concern in this issue, is if we create this large bureaucracy that we’re having, this large board that’s going to be there, that this will never go away,” Republican Rep. Matt Simpson said about the commission’s authoritative arm. “And you could have 49 other states that are going to be able to receive medical marijuana through a licensed pharmacist … but the state of Alabama would be required to go through these dispensaries based on this legislation you have.”

Meanwhile, the bill would prohibit the smoking or vaping of cannabis, as well as processing cannabis into a form that is attractive to or targets children, such as candy or baked goods. Instead, S.B. 46 would limit medical cannabis use to forms such as pills, gelatin cubes, oils, creams and topical patches. Patients could possess up to 70 daily doses of cannabis.

In addition, minors could not use—or be recommended—more than 3% THC. And employers could still drug test and prohibit employees from using cannabis.

Regarding social equity, depending on the business type, either at least one-fourth or one-fifth of all licenses are to be awarded to businesses with at least 51% ownership by individuals of African American, Native American, Asian or Hispanic descent, according to MPP.

Medical cannabis legislation was first introduced in the Alabama House of Representatives two decades ago. Eight years ago, it was the laughingstock of the lower chamber. Now, a medical cannabis bill has supermajority support.

After a nearly 10-hour filibuster Tuesday, House lawmakers reconvened Thursday and considered several floor amendments before passing the Senate-originated bill, 68-34, which would allow registered patients diagnosed with qualifying conditions to access cannabis. The legislation returned to the Senate for final consideration Thursday night, when the upper chamber voted, 20-9, to concur with the House changes.

The legislation, Senate Bill 46, now heads to Republican Gov. Kay Ivey’s desk. In a statement from Ivey’s office Thursday night, press secretary Gina Maiola said the governor looks forward to thoroughly reviewing the bill and providing the diligence it deserves, but did not say whether she would sign it.

If Ivey provides the ink, Alabama will become the 37th medical cannabis state, joining the likes of nearby Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi, according to reform organization Marijuana Policy Project (MPP).

“Passing the compassion act will allow seriously ill patients to finally get the relief they deserve,” said Karen O’Keefe, director of state policies at MPP. “Alabama is one of only 14 states in the country that continues to criminalize the medical use of cannabis, and while this bill is more restrictive than is ideal, it is a dramatic improvement from the status quo and would improve the lives of thousands of Alabamians. We urge … Gov. Ivey to sign it into law.”

The Alabama Senate has passed medical cannabis bills three years in a row, but this is the first time the House has passed legislation. Last year, pandemic-related circumstances derailed the lower chamber’s possibility of a vote.

Sponsored by Republican Sen. Tim Melson, S.B. 46 proposes implementing a medical program that would open the application process for potential patients by Sept. 1, 2022. Republican Rep. Mike Ball sponsored the bill in the House.

“When we get in politics, we get down here and we focus our attention on what it is we’re after; we tend to tunnel up and we don’t see the other side very well, and there’s so many aspects of this that has been so difficult,” Ball said on the House floor Thursday, after bearing the brunt of the filibuster, from opponents on his own side of the aisle, two days earlier.

“And, quite frankly, this has caused me to lose my appetite for politics in this whole process,” he said. “And the people who don’t see it, they’re not bad. They’re just not looking at it.”

Eight years earlier, a Democratic bill for medical cannabis that was introduced by former Rep. Patricia Todd won the 2013 “Shroud Award,” given to the “deadest” bill in the House that session, according to the Associated Press.

“They laughed at me,” Todd said, according to the AP. “I’m glad to see it passed. It’s long overdue.”

Final passage didn’t come without nearly three more hours of floor debate and amendment votes on Thursday. Democratic Rep. Laura Hall, 78, said she first introduced medical cannabis legislation to the House two decades ago.

“Twenty years ago, I brought [legislation to the House] in honor of my son, who had just died the year before I was elected, of AIDS,” Hall said. “And I did that with the idea thinking if I could have had access [to medical cannabis]. The only drug that was available to him was a drug called AZT. He could not take that. When he took that medicine, we would have to get up every four hours—that was the regimen to giving him the medication. And he had finally said, ‘Enough is enough. I may get my T cells back and I can function, but I can’t do it on this medication.’”

Azidothymidine (AZT) is an antiretroviral medication used to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS.

Later during the House’s session on Thursday, the chamber voted, 87-3, in favor renaming the legislation “Darren Wesley ‘Ato’ Hall Compassion Act,” as a tribute to Rep. Hall’s son.

While HIV/AIDS-related nausea or weight loss is one of more than a dozen qualifying conditions included in Alabama’s medical cannabis bill, two other conditions in the Senate’s original version of the bill were removed during an emending process in the House Health Committee—fibromyalgia and menopause or premenstrual syndrome (PMS).

That specific amendment was grouped with several other committee amendments as one package, which passed as a single vote Thursday on the House floor, 72-26.

“This amendment is so disappointing to me as a woman, that all of the issues that specifically impact women were taken out in the Health Committee, which is why I’m going to vote against this amendment,” Democratic Rep. Merika Coleman said. “I support [Rep. Ball] and support the concept, but this body sometimes is so disappointing.”

If enacted, S.B. 46 would create a 14-member Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission, which would determine the maximum daily dosages of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) that caregivers could provide patients with each of the qualifying conditions—also including cancer, terminal illness, depression, epilepsy, anxiety or panic disorder, chronic pain, spasticity, autism, Tourette syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder and others.

The new commission would also be responsible for issuing up to five licenses for vertically integrated operators, up to 12 cultivation licenses, no more than four processor licenses and no more than four dispensary licenses. Businesses awarded the dispensary licenses could operate up to three sites in different counties, while vertically integrated operators could have up to five dispensing sites in different counties, according to the bill’s text.

Other housekeeping items the commission would be responsible for include overseeing the patient registry, issuing medical cards and outlining regulations from seed to sale.

Some amendments that were rejected on the House floor were adding a THC dosing cap of 10 milligrams, enacting a zero-tolerance policy for diving under the influence, and revisiting the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission’s authority to provide caregiver’s the right to distribute medical cannabis should the federal government reschedule cannabis, so that patients could instead receive their medical cannabis from pharmacies should federal prohibition end.  

“My concern in this issue, is if we create this large bureaucracy that we’re having, this large board that’s going to be there, that this will never go away,” Republican Rep. Matt Simpson said about the commission’s authoritative arm. “And you could have 49 other states that are going to be able to receive medical marijuana through a licensed pharmacist … but the state of Alabama would be required to go through these dispensaries based on this legislation you have.”

Meanwhile, the bill would prohibit the smoking or vaping of cannabis, as well as processing cannabis into a form that is attractive to or targets children, such as candy or baked goods. Instead, S.B. 46 would limit medical cannabis use to forms such as pills, gelatin cubes, oils, creams and topical patches. Patients could possess up to 70 daily doses of cannabis.

In addition, minors could not use—or be recommended—more than 3% THC. And employers could still drug test and prohibit employees from using cannabis.

Regarding social equity, depending on the business type, either at least one-fourth or one-fifth of all licenses are to be awarded to businesses with at least 51% ownership by individuals of African American, Native American, Asian or Hispanic descent, according to MPP.