For the last three months, the commission appointed to determine whether medical marijuana is right for Alabama has held public hearings and heard testimony. Now, the panel might have something to show for it: actual legislation.
Tim Melson, a Republican state senator who serves as chair of the Alabama Medical Marijuana Study Commission, said last week that he has a draft of a medical marijuana bill that is nearly ready to be proposed in the legislature.
The commission, which was born out of a failed effort to legalize medical marijuana earlier this year, discussed Melson’s proposal at the group’s meeting in Montgomery on Thursday.
Melson and his colleagues on the study commission face a December 1 deadline to offer up a bill, as well as a report of their findings to the legislature.
“It’s a little tighter,” Melson said of the draft bill, as quoted by the Montgomery Advertiser. “It’s 70-something pages. It’s got a lot we’ve got to work on, but it’s getting close.”
The 15-person Alabama Medical Marijuana Study Commission has been meeting since August, holding hearings and listening to divergent views on the subject.
It was created after a bill proposed earlier this year by Melson was stymied in the state legislature. Melson’s bill would have made marijuana legal for patients suffering from roughly a dozen conditions, including cancer, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Legalization Draws Debate
Other lawmakers blanched at the proposal, calling for more information, and so Melson’s bill went from a proposal to make Alabama one of more than 30 states to legalize medical cannabis to one that established the study commission.
“It’s a big step,” Melson said