It took all of 2023 and more for an already-established Cullman County hemp business to earn its way onto Alabama’s newly announced short list of medical cannabis operators. After a months-long selection process that drew initial criticism from applicants, the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC) awarded Dodge City’s Wagon Trail Hemp Farms one of only five integrated facility licenses to be given to medical cannabis businesses statewide.
Wagon Trail’s integrated license will allow the business to operate across the full spectrum of the medical cannabis industry, from cultivation to manufacturing and final product sales. The license officially takes effect on Jan. 9, 2024, capping what’s been a lengthy, intricate and, at times, frustrating application process for Wagon Trail and other license recipients.
In June, Wagon Trail and other applicants were spurned by the AMCC’s initial round of licensing awards — awards that were quickly paused and later rescinded after many applicants questioned an apparent bias in the assessment process that appeared to disproportionately favor businesses in south Alabama. After weighing its critics’ concerns, AMCC commissioners agreed to retool the way the body weighed its application criteria, while adding an in-person interview component to the process.
Having a chance to directly address the commission may have made the difference in Wagon Trail finally obtaining its integrated facility license, managing partner Joey Robertson recently told The Times.
“It allowed us to actually jump off a piece of paper and show them who we really are and whom we’ve already helped over the years,” he explained. “I’m genuinely satisfied with what the licensing process has evolved into. The additional six months of waiting and spending and planning wasn’t part of our initial plan. But knowing this is the most thorough the entire process has been bodes well for the future of medical cannabis in Alabama.”
Wagon Trail already has a portion of its production infrastructure in place, thanks to its operation since 2019 as a maker of hemp-based products. Robertson said the company will invest additional capital to round out its production process to incorporate the manufacturing and sale of THC-based products, once it has its license in hand in January.