Alabama's medical cannabis market just added its second store — five years after legalization

Callie's Apothecary opened its second Alabama location in Talladega on August 29, making it just the second operating medical cannabis dispensary in a state that legalized medical use back in 2021. The company's first store opened in Montgomery in June, five years after lawmakers passed the program — a delay driven by repeated licensing disputes and litigation that held up sales statewide.

The Montgomery store has done roughly $15,000 in first-week sales and processed more than 1,300 transactions across over 800 patients since opening, according to owner Vince Schilleci, who said the Talladega location exists specifically to cut down the drive for patients in northern Alabama.

Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission chair Sam Blakemore called broader geographic access "vital for patient access and affordability" — a real problem in a state where, at full buildout, only 37 dispensaries across four licensed companies are planned to serve the entire population, and where only 12 are slated for this initial rollout.

Two stores open in a state that approved medical cannabis in 2021 is a useful data point on how long buildout actually takes once litigation gets involved — worth remembering for anyone in a newer program assuming licensing delays are a one-time speed bump rather than a multi-year norm.