Georgia closer to medical marijuana expansion
Georgia is a step closer to expanding the state’s medical marijuana registry to patients who have six new diagnoses or who are in hospice.
“While this bill does not go as far as many of us would like, it does add six more conditions to the already successful program in our current law and this will allow many more hurting Georgians to benefit from medical cannabis oil as an option,” said state Rep. Allen Peake, R-Macon, presenting Senate Bill 16 to the House on Tuesday. The House approved it on Tuesday by a vote of 167-4.
The diagnoses that would be added are: “severe” autism for people under the age of 18; autism for people ages 18 or older; severe or end-stage cases of Alzheimer’s disease, AIDS or peripheral neuropathy; severe Tourette’s syndrome; or any case of the painful skin disease epidermolysis bullosa. It would also open the registry to people in hospice.
Georgia’s medical marijuana registry had more than 1,300 active patients at the end of February. Signing up entitles Georgians to posses a kind of low-THC liquid made from cannabis for diagnoses like severe seizures. THC is the main chemical in marijuana that causes a high.
The bill is a compromise with the state Senate, which passed a bill which would have added only autism and would have lowered the cap on THC. The state House approved a bill with more diagnoses and left the 5 percent THC cap untouched.
State Sen. Ben Watson, R-Savannah, authored the original Senate Bill 16 and has said he expects the Senate will approve the compromise, which also leaves the THC cap at 5 percent.
Senate approval would send the bill to Republican Gov. Nathan Deal’s desk for his review.
Maggie Lee: @maggie_a_lee
This story was originally published March 28, 2017 at 11:43 AM with the headline "Georgia closer to medical marijuana expansion."