Republican infighting doomed legislation that would have allowed limited use of medical marijuana and started to privatize the state’s beleaguered child welfare system. Gov. Nathan Deal is now exploring administrative changes to carry out what lawmakers failed to do.
Deal has consulted with state agency heads about steps that would allow Georgia families to use cannabis oil to treat medical disorders until lawmakers return to Atlanta next year. And he’s considering signing an executive order to jump-start the foster care privatization push that failed last week.
The governor is sticking to a pattern of finding workarounds to back politically sensitive legislation that doesn’t reach his desk. But he also risks charges of overstepping his office’s authority. But he and his aides signal that the political payoff might be worth the risk.
Even fellow Republicans warned that the failure to pass these proposals during the past legislative session could haunt the GOP in November and embolden Democrats, who call Deal’s medical marijuana embrace an election-year change of heart.
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