HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — Access to medical marijuana remains on hold in Alabama and the legislature, lawyers for would-be providers and regulators are still struggling to find a way forward.

There is an ongoing court battle over the selection process used by the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission to issue licenses over three separate sessions in 2023.

The Alabama Legislature, which approved medical cannabis in 2021, is also looking at changes including expanding the number of business licenses with five additional integrated facility licenses, three additional dispensary licenses, and two additional processor licenses.

The Alabama Senate is also expected to consider a bill by Sen. Tim Melson, R-Florence, who led the push for medical cannabis legislation, which would effectively restart the selection process for the five integrated facility licenses. The battle over those licenses is the focus of many lawsuits currently being argued in Montgomery Circuit Court.

H. Marty Schelper, president of the Alabama Cannabis Coalition, spoke to News 19 Thursday about the delays in access to medical cannabis. Schelper said she hopes to see equity for the companies that followed the rules during the medical cannabis license application process.

Nothing has come easy in the effort to ramp up medical cannabis in Alabama.

“It looks like they’re going to increase the number of licenses that are going to be awarded, but that’s shifting the sand on the people that in December, for the third time, licenses were awarded,” Schelper said.

Governor Kay Ivey signed the medical cannabis law in May 2021, nearly three years ago.

“It’s almost like one step forward, two steps back,” Schelper said. “Every time I feel hopeful that medical cannabis is going to be on the shelves for the citizens of Alabama something happens.”

She says those delays have a human cost.  

“I would like to know the number of citizens in the state of Alabama – since May the 6th of 2021 – that have passed away because they never received an opportunity to legal medical cannabis in the state of Alabama,” she said.

Schelper remains determined to keep advocating for access for people in Alabama.

“Let me just say that I’m very, very hopeful, I’m very prayerful, you know that God is going to intervene in some way and we’re going to have medical cannabis on the shelves for the citizens of Alabama, sooner rather than later,” she added.