City Council Members Have Questions Regarding Medical Cannabis

Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle unveiled plans that the city might allow medical cannabis if the City Council wanted to move in that direction two days before the bi-weekly meeting of that body.

The five council members didn’t demur, but there were questions after City External Relations Officer Henry Thornton’s presentation in favor of legalizing the controversial drug into law.

Thornton didn’t have all the answers, but took each one with confidence.

Will money from these sales go to drug research? Yes.

Would there be set prices on cannabis throughout all participating cities and counties in the state? Not sure.

Do other states with legal medical cannabis study effects on oxycodone use? Yes, it goes down.

Can a worker get in trouble if they fail a drug test, but have it legally? Yes, unless there’s permission. They have to follow company rules.

There were other questions too, which certainly wasn’t unexpected.

Would there be limits to the amount a card-carrying patient could buy? Would insurance pay for it? Will what the Alabama Medical Cabanis Commission (AMCC) call dispensary sites be limited? Is there culpability among the others? 

And what about these dispensaries? Will there be drug people hanging around? 

Thomas Nunez, Manager of City of Planning Services, took this one, saying “We don’t foresee lingering. You might see that in a state with a recreational (use) component to it.’’

Thornton said the state “has no interest in recreational cannabis.’’ 

The AMCC was created in 2021 and will operate out of Montgomery to write and decide the rules and regulations for implementation of state law the the Alabama Legislature passed the same year to legalize the use of the substance for medical purposes.

The law is called the Darren Wesley ‘Ato’ Hall Compassion Act. Hall is the late son of state representative Laura Hall, whom Thornton relayed that she believed he could have been helped by cannabis before he died at a young age.

He told the council the first question was, “Why would you want to (legalize it) in the first place?”

Thornton also had the answer to his own question.

“Medical cannabis products have been shown to have enormous benefits for a whole series of maladies that regularly afflict people notable for (Huntsville) – veterans with post stress disorder, senior citizens, cancer patients near the end of their life and people with autism have all seen a lot of benefits from medical cannabis and Huntsville has a significant population of all those individuals.’’

Battle said if the measure to allow medical cannabis passes a city council vote Oct. 27, a “conservative’’ approach will be in place following its enactment. Alabama is the 37th state to allow medical cannabis.

“We’ve looked at things other states have done,’’ he said. “We’ll try to avoid the same mistakes.’’

There are restrictions on who can apply for a cannabis card such as those with debilitating or painful conditions. How the drug can be produced, processed, transported and sold by whom and where will be controlled.

The highly-regulated program will provide a medical grade product in the authorized form of tablets, cubes, topicals, suppositories, patches, nebulizers and inhalable liquids.

There won’t be any smokable substances, Thornton assured, dispelling any notions it would create a Hollywood “stoner’’ scene.

All forms of ingestibles have to come in peach flavor, as ordered by AMCC.

If the council votes to allow medical cannabis, which is expected, zones for dispensaries would be set in December. Licensees to deliver and sell it would receive them in June and begin operating in July.

More information is available at amcc.alabama.gov.

Land sell approved for hotel

The council gave the go-ahead to allow a real property purchase agreement to CityCentre III LLC of a small tract of land between AC Hotel by Marriott and the public library.

Shane Davis, Director of Urban and Economic Development for the city, detailed an ordinance and said the .36 acres of land were too thin to build on and the buying group would use it for greenspace beside a planned hotel and mixed-use project.

The sale is worth $143,800.

A 100-room Moxy hotel is planned for the space that used to house the Huntsville Aquatic Center. The thin tract of land occupies an area at the intersection of Lowe Avenue and Monroe Street. The new hotel is part of the third phase of the CityCentre development and will join AC Hotel by Marriott and Eclipse apartments and mixed-use facility as tenants across from Big Spring Park and adjacent from the Von Braun Center.

Davis took the proposal to the council saying the deal “combines what would typically be a resolution into a selling agreement, but also in order to sell city property we must declare it surplus.’’

To help ease any traffic concerns in the area, Davis said plans are to extend Lowe to connect Joseph Lowery Boulevard and Monroe.

As part of the deal, Davis said CityCentre would build a multi-level parking lot but the city would keep ownership and help with parking downtown.