
Alabama
Recreational marijuana is not legal in Alabama. Possession of flower marijuana for personal use is a misdemeanor that may result in punishment of up to 1 year of incarceration and a maximum fine of $6,000. This is not necessarily the case in Jefferson County and the city of Tuscaloosa where personal use has been decriminalized. Possession of marijuana concentrates is a felony that could result in a term of imprisonment from 1-10 years and a fine of $15,000. Manufacturing, selling, or distributing marijuana is a felony. Cultivating may be treated as simple possession or it may be treated as possession with intent to distribute depending on circumstances.
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Alabama does not currently have a medical marijuana program, but eventually will after Governor Kay Ivey signed the Alabama Compassionate Act into law May 17, 2021. The law stipulates that regulators have until the end of August 2022 to create the rules governing the program. Once it goes into effect, the law will be relatively restrictive. It bans smokable flower, vaping products, baked goods, and candies. It also imposes low dosage limits of 50 mg of THC per day, though the daily dosage can be increased to 75 mg per day for patients with terminal illnesses.
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At present, some patients and their caretakers can possess, administer, and consume cannabis formulations containing up to 3% THC under Leni’s Law, which was passed in 2016. Physicians in good standing with a license to practice medicine in Alabama and a bona-fide physician-patient relationship with patients may recommend such formulations. Only patients with “specific debilitating conditions that produce seizures” are covered by this law.
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Senate Bill 225 was signed into law on June 10, 2019, and allows the sale of CBD products in Alabama, provided they are hemp-derived and contain less than 0.3% THC. The law became effective immediately following its passage.
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No cannabis formulations containing more than 0.3% are currently available in Alabama.