This year’s medical cannabis bill, HB 722, was designed to create a safe, regulated, in-state cultivation process that would have provided medicine to thousands of suffering Georgians. This bill had over 100 co-sponsors in the House, and was supported by over 84 percent of Georgia voters according to a recent poll.
However, the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee removed in-state cultivation and gutted the bill solely to appease one person – Gov. Nathan Deal. What’s left of HB 722 does provide immunity for seven additional conditions, but intractable pain was removed. The rest of us that are “lucky” enough to have a qualifying condition included in the original HB 1 and HB 722, if it passes, are still left to fend for ourselves in trying to access the medicine. We are still forced to incur undue financial hardship traveling to legal states just to obtain medicine, and then breaking federal law bringing it back to Georgia.
Some parents are making the cannabis oil themselves, and are forced to go to the black market to obtain their medicine, running the risk of using dangerous, untested, and inconsistent products. Our doctors are justifiably concerned about this current process the state has created, and have testified on our behalf, telling the committee that they too wish we had a local, safe, tested, regulated product that they can work with.
Our abundant frustration can be summed up in two key points: 1) by catering to the demands of one person, our legislators continue to represent our Governor instead of their constituents, and 2) opponents, especially the Governor, continue to put the highest priority on preventing someone from getting high, ahead of the values and needs of the sick and suffering. Should we not focus first on providing medicine that can actually save lives and reduce suffering?
Because they fear someone may get high (which you can already do), no one is allowed to have access to any medicine. This is akin to banning all cough syrup because someone may abuse it, or banning anything that has the potential for abuse – cars, guns, etc. Obviously this is unrealistic, which is why laws are put in place to benefit the greater good, but limit abuse. HB 722 did exactly that before it was gutted to appease the Governor’s wishes. The bill was based on Minnesota’s medical cannabis program, which currently has two safe, secure dispensaries; has currently just under a thousand patients as they ramp slowly towards gaining doctor and patient approvals; and has no push-back from their law enforcement on their current tightly regulated program.
I’m not a statistician, but I can say with near-certainty that these limited number of patients that are legally able to go through the registration process with their doctor will have absolutely no impact on the approximate 700,000 people who already use marijuana on a regular basis in Georgia.
We have tried to discuss with Gov. Deal and his staff their specific issues with the Minnesota model, but he and his staff have refused to meet with us or any parents to discuss his concerns. The bottom line is that one person is making the rules without input from anyone else, which if I recall correctly from my high school civics class constitutes a dictatorship. This behavior is bad enough if it applies to a budget bill or naming a highway, but this bill is about access to medicine. Medicine that is safer than the benzodiazepines and addictive pharmaceuticals we are forced to take today. Medicine that has been used for thousands of years. Medicine that has shown to help reduce tumors. Medicine that delays the onset of ALS and Parkinson’s. Medicine that reduces the muscle spasticity of MS patients. Medicine that calms and focuses the brains of people on the autism spectrum. Medicine that eases pain without getting high. Medicine that stops my child from having seizures. Medicine that our doctors want us to have. Eighty-four percent of Georgians support this medicine being grown right here.
Why does one person get to say we can’t have it?
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