Georgia lawmakers are moving ahead with plans to study the legalization of medical marijuana.
General Assembly leaders began this week to appoint committee members charged with making recommendations on the issue, after the state House and Senate failed to reach a compromise in the waning hours of this year’s legislative session. State Rep. Allen Peake, R-Macon, will lead the committee along with Senate Health and Human Services Chairwoman Renee Unterman, R-Buford.
The appointments come amid a flurry of announcements from the state Capitol over assignments to a number of panels. Some study committees spend state money to look into issues of debatable value, such as self-driving cars. Others will tackle serious issues, such as the state's controversial attempts to store water in underground aquifers.
In the House, Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, named lawmakers to panels that will study ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft, as well as how the state compensates people who are wrongfully convicted of crimes.
Several joint House and Senate study committees have yet to be named, including ones that will study transportation issues and the Common Core education initiative.
Peake led the push earlier this year to legalize limited use of medical marijuana in Georgia. His legislation, House Bill 885, would allow Georgia families to use cannabis oil to treat certain seizure disorders in both children and adults, afflictions that can cause hundreds of seizures a day and often lead to death.
The oil is harvested from the marijuana plant but does not create the high that other forms of marijuana produce. The bill would have provided immunity from prosecution to anyone who was in possession of the particular cannabis oil the bill wants to make legal.
It also would have cleared the way for patients and their parents to travel outside of Georgia to find a supply, most likely in Colorado because it allows the oil’s use in limited amounts.
HB 885 found support in both chambers, but failed when the Senate — led by Unterman — tied it to efforts requiring insurance companies to cover behavioral therapy for children 6 and under who have been diagnosed with autism.
The committee has not yet scheduled meeting dates, but is expected to issue a report by year’s end.
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