AMCC Director John McMillan, right, looks at new chair-elect, Rex Vaughn, middle, in the Aug. 10, 2023 Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission meeting in Montgomery. Sam Blakemore, vice chair-elect, is on the left. (Alander Rocha/Alabama Reflector)
The Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC) elected Rex Vaughn as chair and Sam Blakemore as vice chair at its Thursday meeting in Montgomery.
Vaughn, a farmer from Madison County who previously served as vice chair of the commission, and Blakemore, a pharmacist based in Birmingham, were the only candidates nominated for each position.
The election came a week after then-chairman Dr. Steven Stokes resigned following a lawsuit that alleged Stokes could not serve on the AMCC commission.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
The suit alleged that state law prohibiting any AMCC member from being a “current public official.” At the time of his appointment in July 2021, Stokes was a trustee for the University of South Alabama.
Vaughn praised Stokes for his medical expertise and his determination to bring medical cannabis to Alabama.
“Dr. Stokes – we will miss him, but I think his input and legacy will be with us a long time,” Vaughn said.
The AMCC Thursday was set to award licenses to businesses that applied to participate in the state’s medical cannabis program in June. After AMCC announced which companies were awarded a license, those denied a license raised questions about the scoring transparency.
Less than a week after announcement, the commission imposed a stay on awarding licenses, citing “scoring inconsistencies” that would have led to “catastrophic” results if the licenses were issued.
The University of South Alabama brought in evaluators who reviewed the initial license applications.
The same company that filed a lawsuit against Stokes, Alabama Always, initially filed a lawsuit alleging that the commission violated the state law that legalized and set up a market for medical cannabis in 2019 when the agency denied its application for a license.
SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST.
Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our website. AP and Getty images may not be republished. Please see our republishing guidelines for use of any other photos and graphics.
