At the Perry County Commission meeting on Tuesday, October 11th, Albert Turner Jr. proposed that Perry County look into passing a resolution that would allow medical marijuana to be used in the county. Turner stated that his goal was to “to give Perry County an opportunity to house a dispensary in the county.”
He noted that there are currently 37 medical marijuana dispensaries across the state of Alabama and while passing this resolution would not guarantee a dispensary is placed in the county, it would put Perry on a short list of counties where such an enterprise would be legal. Turner stated that he medical marijuana was found to be “very effective medicine for people with epilepsy and autism.”
The license for each dispensary is $50,000 dollars that will go to the state and because it is a class 1 drug it can only be prescribed by specially certified doctors. Turner said there are currently no doctors in the state that can prescribe it.
Similar resolutions have already been passed in Tuscaloosa County, Macon County and Orange Beach City. If this resolution is passed, Perry County would set its own license fee. However, since marijuana is federally illegal, all transactions would have to be cash based. Ultimately the issue will be discussed more in the following weeks as the Commission adjourned with the agreement to do more research. “The point of this resolution is so that Perry County will be ahead of the game.” Turner stated.
