Disappointing legislative session

The 2016 session of the Georgia General Assembly is now history, and while two very controversial measures sit in limbo on the governor's desk -- the so-called religious freedom bill and campus carry bill -- that he may or may not veto, the most disappointing measures in our estimation are two proposals that didn't get a fair hearing. One was eventually successful, but the other was not.

First, the bad news. House Bill 722, sponsored by Rep. Allen Peake, R-Macon, originally sought to do two basic things: allow medicinal marijuana to be grown in Georgia to keep those who need the drug from violating federal law to acquire the drug, and to expand the pool of people with certain maladies who could use the drug.

After the in-state growing was deemed impossible to pass due to opposition from the governor and resistance from law enforcement, Peake proceeded with part two. Eventually that effort proved futile as well. Those with HIV-AIDS or PTSD and other illnesses will just have to endure their pain.

As egregious as that slight was, another bill that proved successful in the waning minutes of the session after midnight was House Bill 827, sponsored by Rep. Scott Holcomb, D-Atlanta. It was discovered there were uncollected, yet-to-be-tested rape kits all over the state that had not been picked up by law enforcement agencies. According to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation, Grady Hospital had 1,400 untested rape kits. The hospital believed it couldn't release the kits due to federal privacy regulations. Holcomb's bill would clear all that up by requiring law enforcement to find untested sexual assault kits and count them.

The bill passed the House unanimously. But it hit a snag in the Senate in the name of Sen. Renee Unterman, R-Buford. She wouldn't let it out of her committee for some inexplicable reason she tried to explain. But in the face of withering pressure, she stepped away from the cliff, but the House and Senate had to do some legislative gymnastics to get the bill approved before sine die.

It was victorious for members of the General Assembly and a show of real bipartisanship and prevailing over the odds, but it was sad, too.

If those kits had been tested, some victims may not have had to be victims at all, because their attackers might have been in jail and not on the streets. It's sad because one of the members elected to serve her constituents -- Sen. Unterman -- was willing to allow that situation to continue.

And for what?

This story was originally published March 26, 2016 at 3:53 PM with the headline "Disappointing legislative session ."