2015 Stories of the Year: Legislature passes medical marijuana law
No. 5 Story of the Year
January 1, 2016
2015 Stories of the Year: Legislature passes medical marijuana law
The state Legislature joined dozens of other states in loosening medical marijuana laws when it voted to decriminalize possession of a limited amount of some liquid made from cannabis.
By nearly unanimous votes in March, the Georgia Senate and House decided to set up a medical marijuana registry for patients who have one of eight diagnoses: Crohn’s disease, mitochondrial disease, seizure disorders, severe cancer, Lou Gehrig’s disease, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease or sickle cell disease.
Those patients can have up to 20 fluid ounces of low-THC liquid medical cannabis, as long as it is from a cannabis-legal state.
State Rep. Allen Peake, R-Macon, authored the bill and has spent time since then lobbying for in-state cultivation of the cannabis to make the liquid.
Peake says it’s too risky for seriously ill Georgians to break the federal ban on THC to bring home a liquid that they say can relive pain and seizures. Republican Gov.
Nathan Deal has said he will not support in-state cultivation because he does not think the industry could be controlled tightly enough.