USA | Alabama legalizes Medical Marijuana

On May 17, 2021, Governor Kay Ivey signed SB 46 into law (known as the “Darren Wesley ‘Ato’ Hall Compassion Act”) makes Alabama the 37th state to legalize medical marijuana.

Key Features of the Act:

• Provide civil and criminal protections to certain patients with a qualifying medical condition who have a valid medical cannabis card for11the medical use of cannabis.
  
• Establish the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission and provide for its membership and duties;
• Provide for certification of patients to authorize use of medical cannabis;
  
• License and regulate the cultivation, processing, transporting, testing, and dispensing of medical cannabis;
• Prohibit certain types of medical cannabis products;
• Provide for patient registry and seed-to-sale tracking;
• Provide certain legal protections for users of medical cannabis and to the employers;
• Provide further for workers’ compensation benefits in certain circumstances where an employee uses medical cannabis;

Use of Medical Cannabis

As for the use of medical cannabis, the list of qualifying medical conditions is as follows:

• Autism
• Cancer-related Cachexia, nausea or vomiting, weight loss or chronic pain
• Crohn’s disease
• Depression
• Epilepsy or condition causing seizures
• HIV/AIDS-related nausea or weight loss
• Panic disorder
• Parkinson’s
• Persistent nausea not significantly responsive to traditional treatment (other than pregnancy, cannabis-induced vomiting, or cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome)
• PTSD
• Sickle-cell anemia
• Spasticity associated with a motor neuron disease (ALS)
• Spasticity associated with MS or spinal cord injury
• Terminal illness
• Tourette’s
• Chronic or intractable pain in which conventional therapeutic intervention and opiate therapy is contraindicated or has proved ineffective