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Thread: Governor supporting new bill to legalize medical marijuana

  1. #1

    Governor supporting new bill to legalize medical marijuana

    Deal is supporting state Rep. Allen Peake's plan to decriminalize medical marijuana in Georgia.

    Channel 2 political reporter Lori Geary talked exclusively with the governor Friday about the new bill that would mean big relief to families with children who suffer from seizure disorders.

    Deal told Geary he supports Peake's efforts to offer immunity from prosecution for the families in those states who want to return home to Georgia with the medicine.

    At least 17 Georgia parents who have kids with severe seizure disorders are in Colorado giving their kids cannabis oil, which doesn't get you high.

    “It's an important step. We recognize it may not be the last step,” Deal said.

    Last year, efforts to legalize medical marijuana in Georgia failed on the last day of the legislative session. It failed when the State Senate tacked on a bill that would mandate insurance companies cover some types of autism therapies.

    Republican House leaders balked at that amendment and said it had nothing to do with medical marijuana.

    Peake is also pushing to legalize the growing and manufacturing of the cannabis oil in Georgia.

    If only the immunity part passes, the families would more than likely still have to travel out of state to get the medicine.

    “While we're not moving as quickly as I’d love to see us go, we're moving in the right direction,” Peake told Geary. “This is a huge step forward.”

    “I think it's a first step. I don't know if I would use the word huge,” said parent Blaine Cloud.

    Geary met up with Blaine Cloud and his wife, Shannon Cloud, and filled them in on the governor's decision Friday.

    Their daughter Alaina Cloud suffers from seizures.

    “(It’s) a disappointing day for all of the families because we had high hopes this was going to be the year and Georgia was actually going to do it the right way,” said Shannon Cloud.

    “We acknowledge we're not addressing all of the issues that are out there, but we're addressing the ones we consider the most pressing,” Deal said.

    In a statement from Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle's spokesman Ben Fry, he said, "The Lt. Governor believes that by working cooperatively the General Assembly can find a responsible solution that will provide much needed relief to the children and their families afflicted by these terrible conditions."
    A new poll from the Atlanta-Journal Constitution found that 84 percent of registered voters support the legalization of cannabis oil.

    More than 900 Georgians were surveyed for the poll.
    http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local...al-mari/njkLm/



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  3. #2
    Go Georgia!
    Quote Originally Posted by dannno View Post
    It's a balance between appeasing his supporters, appeasing the deep state and reaching his own goals.
    ~Resident Badgiraffe




  4. #3
    Day 1 in Georgia Legislature brings changes to medical marijuana plan

    Plans to legalize medical marijuana in a limited form may be on the fast track after concessions by its sponsor, as the Georgia Legislature officially got under way Monday.

    On a day largely filled with ceremony and pomp, talk also swirled of increasing the state’s cigarette tax to help boost revenue for transportation and health care needs — two of the biggest issues facing lawmakers this year.

    The biggest movement came on Rep. Allen Peake’s plan for medical marijuana, House Bill 1. HB 1 originally had two parts. The first granted Georgians immunity from prosecution if they possessed or transported cannabis oil.

    The oil is used to treat certain seizure disorders in both children and adults, afflictions that can cause hundreds of seizures a day and often lead to death. It is harvested from the marijuana plant but does not create the high that recreational use of marijuana produces.

    The second part would have created a program to grow the strain of marijuana needed to produce the oil.

    But, after meeting with Gov. Nathan Deal late last week, Peake agreed to abandon the grow program — for now. Instead, lawmakers will be asked to concentrate on changes that would provide immunity from prosecution to anyone who is in possession of the particular cannabis oil the bill wants to make legal.

    Doing so would clear the way for patients and their parents to travel outside of Georgia to find a supply in such places as Colorado because it allows the oil’s use in limited amounts.

    “After much discussion, it is clear that we need to conduct more research on setting an in-state growing scenario in order to provide the best and most effective infrastructure for our citizens,” said Peake, a Macon Republican.

    Instead, the new HB 1 would create a commission to study the best way to create a Georgia grow program whether through private contractors or state control, he said. The original proposal would have called for a usable, Georgian-grown marijuana product to be ready by the end of 2016.

    Peake said he’s not concerned. “We basically got everything we wanted on the immunity language, and the grow provision will be postponed for a year,” he said.

    Peake’s effort to pass a similar bill last year foundered in the last minutes of the 2014 session. It died then because the state Senate, led by the chamber’s Health and Human Services Chairwoman Renee Unterman, R-Buford, attached to the bill a separate piece of legislation to require health insurance policies sold in Georgia to cover behavioral therapy for some children diagnosed with autism.

    Unterman said Monday, however, that she backed the immunity push by the governor. She spent the summer and fall working with the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia to draft language she felt comfortable with. Unterman has also drafted a separate bill addressing immunity but with a narrower scope — allowing the oil for treatment of only epilepsy and only in children — but she said she was not sure she would file it.

    “I feel very comfortable after talking with the governor that we’re going to move forward,” said Unterman, who has also met with Peake.

    Peake’s effort has popular support. A poll of Georgians conducted this month by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution found an overwhelming 84 percent of respondents supported legalizing a limited form of medical marijuana to treat certain conditions.

    But without a Georgia-produced product, patients who could benefit from the cannabis oil face logistical and legal hurdles. While HB 1 would grant them immunity from prosecution in Georgia, that benefit stops at the state line. But Peake said there might be other options.

    Several Colorado-based production facilities could soon start shipping cannabis oil under the belief that it would qualify as a hemp-based product, which would make it legal.

    But, he said, “that’s a gray area.”

    Also, both South Carolina and Florida have passed similar bills in the past year, and the Florida measure allows five organizations there to produce the drug, according to the Washington-based Marijuana Policy Project. That means Georgians could theoretically travel to Florida, buy cannabis oil and return to Georgia without threat of prosecution.

    Meanwhile, talk Monday of a potential increase in the state cigarette tax had lawmakers and lobbyists scrambling for information. While few details are known, it does not appear that the idea is being proposed by either the Georgia Hospital Association or Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, two of the major players in state health care at the Capitol.

    But, according to those who have heard the plan, raising the cigarette tax would generate new revenue to help pay for Medicaid, the joint state-federal health care program for the poor and disabled. That, in turn, would free up other state dollars to help pay for transportation projects.

    Georgia last increased its cigarette tax in 2003, when then-Gov. Sonny Perdue used the windfall in his first year in office to fill a hole in the state budget.

    “The cigarette tax has been an issue as long as I’ve been down here,” Unterman said. “When people are looking for sources of money and new revenue, they always bring that issue up. But I think everything is on the table as far as revenue.”

    Today, the state’s tax of 37 cents per pack is the fourth-lowest in the country, behind Missouri, which levies 17 cents;, Virginia at 30 cents and Louisiana at 36 cents.

    Georgia collected $216 million in cigarette taxes in fiscal 2014, which ended June 30.
    http://www.myajc.com/news/news/state....257099.735611

  5. #4
    Just legalize all drugs already. Why is this a "gray area." Your body, your choice. That the pro-choicers have perverted that slogan doesn't mean it isn't accurate.
    This post represents only the opinions of Christian Liberty and not the rest of the forum. Use discretion when reading

  6. #5
    Medical marijuana bill officially filed in state House

    State Rep. Allen Peake, R-Macon, on Monday officially filed his medical marijuana bill with nearly 100 co-sponsors.

    Peake’s bill, House Bill 1, will be assigned to committee on Tuesday. It will offer immunity from prosecution to Georgia families who possess a strain of cannabis oil that may be used to treat a variety of disorders.

    Peake said he’s hopeful that an out-of-state manufacturer will soon agree to ship the product directly to Georgia patients, eliminating the immediate need for a Georgia-based growing and manufacturing program.
    http://www.ajc.com/news/news/state-r...4_politics_sfp

  7. #6
    Prosecutors object to ‘laundry list’ of medicinal pot’s eligible users

    That Allen Peake has collected the signatures of 100 of his fellow House members for his medical marijuana bill. He has bowed to Gov. Nathan Deal’s objections and has greatly narrowed the scope of his measure.

    So you would expect smooth sailing for House Bill 1.

    Your daily jolt on politics from the AJC's Political insider blogBut rough waters still lay ahead, specifically in the form of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, the group that represents Georgia’s district attorneys.

    Last night, we received a long note from Chuck Spahos, the PACG’s executive director. Prosecutors, he wrote, have no problem with treating seizure-prone kids with a dose of non-intoxicating pot derivative:

    The limited decriminalization of a low THC cannabidiol for the treatment of certain seizure disorders afflicting children is not something we, the prosecutors of this state, would oppose. We agree that a provision ensuring that these children and their legal caregivers would not be prosecuted for being in possession of that particular substance is palatable. Also, a provision that calls for clinical studies of the effects of cannabidiol as well as protection from prosecution for those conducting the studies is also appropriate.
    If you feel a “but” coming on, you’ve got good instincts. The current version of the Peake bill would permit medicinal marijuana for the treatment of the following diseases/conditions, in both kids and adults: Cancer, glaucoma, AIDS, ALS, seizure disorders, multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, mitochondrial disease, Alzheimer’s disease, muscle spasticity disorder, fibromyalgia, Parkinson’s disease, PTSD, autism, sickle cell anemia, Tourette syndrome, and other illnesses of a terminal nature.

    We’ll let Spahos continue:

    However, there is a laundry list of disorders listed within the proposed version of HB 1 as well as the concept that any person affected by one of those disorders, or that is able to acquire a physician’s signature indicating such, could possess liquid marijuana. That is not something the prosecutors and law enforcement of this state are willing to embrace. This is not something that we have indicated to the sponsor, the Governor or the Lt. Governor that we can support.

    Remember that any law that passes that decriminalizes possession of any form of marijuana puts Georgia in direct conflict with federal law. This is a fact that most are willing to ignore to see to it that these children with these specific seizure disorders, which we have heard there exists no other remedy to ease their pain or decrease the frequency of their seizures, can have access to this substance.

    This is not the case for all others that can simply get a certificate from a physician and then legally possess liquid marijuana.
    In other words, prosecutors fear that we could have a repeat of the “pain pill clinics” they’ve worked to get rid of. More:

    We have seen the impact this accessibility is having on the children and motorists of the few states that have gone down that road. If the Georgia General Assembly is ready to legalize marijuana despite its continued illegality under federal law, then it needs to do just that. Do not legalize liquid marijuana under the false pretense that it is only for medical conditions.
    Just a few minutes ago, we talked to Peake, who said he’s puzzled by the prosecutorial objections. If a non-intoxicating pot derivative is legalized for one group of sufferers, “why not offer that medicine to other citizens who could potentially benefit?” he asked. “I have no problem fighting that fight all day.”

    The Macon Republican said that his bill addresses the policing problem by requiring those who use medicinal pot to apply for a registration card with the state Department of Public Health – so officers wouldn’t have to guess whether a possessor has the proper disease.

    “If they’re object is that it is tough to figure out who’s got a diagnosis, we’ve got a protocol to deal with that,” Peake said.
    http://politics.blog.ajc.com/2015/01...4_politics_sfp

  8. #7
    It will forever elude me why the southeastern U.S. insists on dragging its feet on this issue, especially when we always bemoan the political and economic control that more populous regions, especially in the north, disproportionately exercise over the rest of the country. Do we not see what legal weed is doing for the economy (as well as the violent crime rate) in Colorado and Washington? With the soil, sun, and moisture we have down here, cannabis and hemp could make this region into an agricultural powerhouse. Independent of the Federal Teat, we could even give secession another try!
    "When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system's game. The establishment will irritate you - pull your beard, flick your face - to make you fight, because once they've got you violent then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don't know how to handle is non-violence and humor. "

    ---John Lennon


    "I EAT NEOCONS FOR BREAKFAST!!!"

    ---Me

  9. #8
    Prosecutor to lawmakers at med-pot hearing: ‘I’ve been kicked out of nicer places than this’

    State Rep. Allen Peake formally presented his Medical Marijuana 2.0 bill at a House committee hearing on Tuesday, provoking a strong round of opposition from prosecutors and law enforcement officials worried that it would allow more potent pot-distilled oil aimed at a larger list of ailments, diseases and syndromes.

    Surprisingly, many members of the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee pushed back – on Peake’s behalf and against the law-and-order worries.

    A previous bill, introduced last year, failed to pass but prompted a study commission that met over the summer. Apparently, things got a bit tense – and prosecutors found themselves excluded from the process.

    In his testimony today, Chuck Spahos, executive director of the Prosecutors’ Council of Georgia, said this:

    “As I said, I served this summer on the commission. I’ve been kicked out of nicer places than this before. We still believe that the prosecutors belong and have some say and can be helpful in this process. So we’re a little bit disappointed that we’re no longer involved in this process going forward.”

    Specifically, law enforcement officials objected to legalizing oil with a larger THC content – 5 percent rather than 3 percent – and the inclusion of adult conditions that could be treated with the oil. Last year’s bill only addressed treatment for children with uncontrollable seizures. They also testified that the state’s driving-under-the-influence laws were wholly unprepared to deal with abusers.

    On the committee, state Rep. Matt Ramsey, R-Peachtree City, took issue with prosecutors’ warnings that the state was headed down a slippery slope, as did Micah Gravley, R-Douglasville, and B.J. Pak, R-Lilburn. Pak had this exchange with Terry Norris, executive director of the Georgia Sheriffs Association – which approved last year’s bill:

    Pak: Last year’s bill had nothing about getting permits from the Department of Public Health. When you said it was okay [last year], it had no restrictions. You had no idea who could have it.

    Norris: But you had one disorder. Seizure disorder.

    Pak: We’ll stick with one disorder, then. Adult seizures. What number are you comfortable with, and what number are you not comfortable with – that the sheriff’s association would be willing to accept? Less than a thousand or 10,000? I’m talking about people suffering from seizures only. I’m trying to understand where the line is.

    Norris: What I’m trying to say is, when you limit it to children with seizure disorders, there was a finite number of people….If there were problems, we would be able to see through these few people.

    No vote was taken on the bill.
    http://politics.blog.ajc.com/2015/02...4_politics_sfp



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  11. #9
    Georgia House panel advances medical marijuana bill
    A key House panel on Monday unanimously passed legislation legalizing the possession of medical marijuana.

    Sponsored by Republican state Rep. Allen Peake of Macon, House Bill 1 says people may legally possess up to 20 ounces of it and that not more than 5 percent may consist of tetrahydrocannabinol – or THC – the mind-altering part of the drug.

    The legislation applies to people who have been diagnosed with cancer, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, seizure disorders, multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, mitochondrial disease, fibromyalgia and Parkinson’s disease. To get medical marijuana, they would have to be diagnosed by their doctors and get a registration card from the state Health Department.
    http://www.ajc.com/news/news/state-r...4_politics_sfp

  12. #10
    Medical marijuana bill breezes through House vote

    Legislation making it legal to possess medical marijuana in Georgia breezed through the state House on Wednesday, setting up a potential confrontation with the Senate.

    House Bill 1, sponsored by Rep. Allen Peake, R-Macon, passed the House 157-2. The bill was first amended, however, to add sickle cell disease back into the list of disorders that could qualify a patient to use the drug. The amendment came after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that sickle cell had been deleted over the objections of many African-American lawmakers.

    Qualified seizure disorders under the bill are cancer, Crohn’s disease, multiple sclerosis and Lou Gehrig’s disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, among others.

    Peake told reporters after the vote that he hopes the Senate quickly passes the bill as written and sends it to Gov. Nathan Deal’s desk. His fear, however, is that the Senate instead will strip every disorder except childhood seizure disorder from the bill.
    http://www.ajc.com/news/news/state-r...4_politics_sfp

  13. #11
    Good, now all drugs need to be legalized!

  14. #12
    This is arguable not only not a medical marijuana legalization bill, it is perhaps an excuse to not even consider legalizing medical marijuana in GA. Anti-fun politicians are pushing these bills. Medical marijuana is overwhelmingly popular in the US except perhaps with FL voters. These annoying politicians should stop pushing these crappy bills that hardly help anyone. This is worse than what Christie did in NJ.

    Still, it is a step forward for the children. I'm happy for them.
    Lifetime member of more than 1 national gun organization and the New Hampshire Liberty Alliance. Part of Young Americans for Liberty and Campaign for Liberty. Free State Project participant and multi-year Free Talk Live AMPlifier.



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