My family and I are medical refugees – Georgia residents currently living in Colorado. It is our sincere hope this move is temporary, as we believe Georgia is moving towards legalization of the cannabis oil that has given my 4-year-old son the ability to smile for the first time in three years.
The headlines that Gov. Nathan Deal supports House Bill 1 are encouraging, but reports that his support is limited to only decriminalizing possession of this oil unfortunately won’t bring most families like ours home.
Georgia failed to pass a medical marijuana law during the 2014 legislative session, a huge disappointment to many patients and families. Since then, more families have made the difficult choice to leave their loved ones — in many cases splitting up their families — and their friends and local support systems to move to a state where medical marijuana is legal.
Caring for a child with medical problems is beyond exhausting and stressful, and moving halfway across the country adds an additional level of financial and emotional strain. The governor and Legislature have an opportunity to alleviate this.
I have experienced this hardship firsthand. My wife Annett and I moved our son Jagger to Colorado to gain access to cannabis oil to control his severe pain and seizures resulting from terminal mitochondrial disease. Leaving Georgia was extremely difficult; there was a possibility Jagger wouldn’t survive the six-day road trip.
However, we made it, and we are providing Jagger with life-saving cannabis oil. It has significantly reduced his seizures and pain episodes. Jagger has also shown significant improvements in his cognitive abilities.
While we are encouraged Georgia lawmakers finally recognize the need to establish a medical marijuana law, it is saddening to hear Governor Deal and his office will not support in-state growing of the plant. Instead, they ask that families risk everything to obtain medical marijuana elsewhere, breaking the laws of other states and federal law.
While families might be safe from prosecution in Georgia, they are not immune elsewhere if they carry the product across state lines. If caught in a state that does not have a medical marijuana law, state or federal prison might be their next stop.
Prosecution protection is a viable option only for the short term — a few months. Expecting special-needs families to go across the country every few weeks to purchase cannabis oil for over a year, perhaps longer, is a tremendous burden many families are unable to overcome emotionally and financially.
Additionally, many patients who would benefit from HB 1 have weak immune systems. It is essential the cannabis oil they obtain is safe and clean. The best way to ensure the quality of the oil is to allow highly regulated and supervised in-state growing, with tight regulations on growing and extracting facilities backed by third-party lab results.
By delaying this part of HB 1, families and patients would be forced to obtain medical marijuana elsewhere, where its origin might not be known, and the quality and safety of the product might not be guaranteed.
Governor Deal explains his main goal is to bring Georgia families home. But if in-state growing is taken out of HB 1, many families currently in Colorado won’t be coming home. They are not willing to risk losing their oil supply after having seen so many positive results.
To bring families home, we must have in-state growing in Georgia in 2015. Telling families and patients they will not be prosecuted if they come home, but not providing life-saving cannabis oil in Georgia, may be well-intentioned. Once again, though, it leaves families with little hope of helping their sick children. And it leaves adults suffering from debilitating illnesses little hope of finding relief.
Medical marijuana is not only a life-saving intervention; it provides a better quality of life every day for those who suffer. Governor Deal, you have the opportunity to end the suffering of so many Georgians, adults and children alike, by providing high-quality medical marijuana produced right here in Georgia. Please don’t let us down and let those affected suffer one more day.
