There will be no homecoming for children who had hoped legislation to legalize medical marijuana would allow access to the drug in Georgia, families and activists said Tuesday.
Dozens of parents and their children, many in wheelchairs, expressed frustration and disappointment with a decision late last week to prevent legislation this year that would have created a system to grow and cultivate a cannabis-based medication. Instead, Rep. Allen Peake, R-Macon, the bill's author, will move forward only with a bill that would grant immunity from prosecution for those who are authorized to possess the drug.
The bill’s supporters had hoped it would allow families who had moved to Colorado for access to the medication to return home. Instead, much of Tuesday’s disappointment was leveled squarely at Gov. Nathan Deal, who persuaded Peake to abandon the grow program until next year.
“Why wait for next year? Please explain it to me,” said Dale Jackson of LaGrange, the 3rd District Republican Party chairman. “The governor is ignoring patients like my son.”
Jackson’s 6-year-old son has autism and has never spoken a word. Jackson believes the oil derived from cannabis would help his son’s symptoms.
“If it was grown here in Georgia, I’d be able to go to a local clinic without breaking the law,” Jackson said.
Blaine Cloud of Atlanta likewise has a daughter who suffers from seizures. He said he believed a study committee — created after a medical marijuana bill that Peake sponsored died last year — had already suggested the framework for a Georgia-based grow program.
Now, he said, families will have to wait longer “due to the governor’s apparent need for more information,” Cloud said.
Deal spokesman Brian Robinson said the governor understands the “urgency of the issue” but said “it’s important to do it right.”
Deal, Robinson said, will discuss the issue in Wednesday’s State of the State speech.
The governor will “lay out his vision for how we move forward to help these families,” Robinson said. “As he has said publicly, we want to decriminalize possession when this medication is attained legally and find a pathway to access for patients.”
The families gathered at the Capitol on Tuesday are eager to hear Deal's plans. As for now, the proposed House Bill 1 "is like putting a Band-Aid on a gaping wound," said Bonnie Ledbetter, president of the Epilepsy Foundation of Georgia. "I'm upset at the lack of urgency with which this is being addressed."
Ledbetter and others said that many families who moved to Colorado for ready and legal access to cannabis oil will be unlikely to move back to Georgia if HB 1 passes as is. Mike Hopkins said his family is among those who will be staying out west.
Three of Hopkins' four children were born with seizure disorders. Their son, Abraham, 6, died in July. Two weeks before they were to move to Colorado late last year, his 21-year-old daughter Mary Elizabeth also died. Now, 17-year-old Michala is taking a half teaspoon of cannabis oil a day and has seen the number and strength of her seizures ease.
Hopkins said the decision to gut the bill haunts them.
“We were stunned,” he said. “We were hoping to come home.
“We are overwhelmed with sadness.”
About the Author
