State Rep. Allen Peake's medical marijuana push began last spring with a simple plan to legalize a cannabis oil derivative for use by children diagnosed with often-fatal seizure disorders.
But Peake’s plan became more complicated Wednesday, when a national policy expert said the state would have to go much further than just approving the drug for select use.
Matt Cook, a consultant who helped write Colorado’s medical marijuana laws before recreational use became legalized there, said the most successful medical marijuana policies allowed for a number of licensed, regulated growers to produce the product in-state.
“I would tell you to create a license and control it from the beginning,” Cook told a state committee studying medical marijuana in Georgia, in the first of five meetings scheduled on the subject.
As a result, Peake told reporters that he thought both citizens and legislators were ready for a legal and regulated medical marijuana infrastructure in Georgia, for the purpose of providing relief to seizure-stricken children and terminally ill adults.
“I think we’ve learned from the mistakes of other states,” Peake said, outlining an early plan that could include between two and 10 licensed state growers. “The past legislation that did not provide a cultivation growing model, it’s been a failure. Their citizens have not been able to access it.”
Medical marijuana has been on the state's agenda since Peake introduced a bill during the past legislative session to legalize a cannabis oil derivative that reduced rare epilepsy and seizure disorders in children. The bill, which did not include provisions for growing cannabis legally in Georgia, failed after legislators couldn't pass it before the session's midnight deadline on March 20.
The bill would have presented its own problems if passed. Georgia families who needed the drug would have had to travel to Colorado or other states to get it. They would have to then transport it home, possibly breaking numerous state and federal drug laws in the process, since the nonpsychotropic marijuana derivative is still considered to be a Class 1 Controlled Substance – a designation given to illegal drugs that are perceived to be highly dangerous.
Researchers are typically prohibited by federal law from testing Class 1 substances on humans, presenting a real problem for studying the cannabis oil. Matt Gwynn, an Atlanta neurologist and guest of the committee, expressed the need for a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial to make sure it actually works.
“This may be the absolute answer to epilepsy. I hope it is,” Gwynn said. “But we have to study it before we know.”
Cook suggested a multilayered approach for oversight, one that involved recruiting a major agency to oversee grower licensing while also including other state groups. Limiting marijuana production to medical purposes would require a sophisticated label process so law enforcement could differentiate it from illegal drugs.
Greater medical marijuana expansion would require research from universities, diversion programs from public safety officers and patient registries in local hospitals.
Such a step would need buy-in from agencies as far-flung as the Department of Revenue, for taxation purposes, and the Department of Agriculture, for setting limits on THC, the psychoactive component in marijuana.
“No regulatory framework is really a deal-breaker,” Cook said. “If it’s here, regulate it.”
Gov. Nathan Deal has voiced support for legislation targeted at helping pediatric patients and launched a series of clinical trials to examine the efficacy of the seizure drug. While he has previously said he would be watching the results of the study committee, he was not immediately available for comment on the possibility of allowing growers in Georgia.
For those who say they need the legislation to help their children, the clock is ticking.
At least one family has moved out of the state in order to treat their child with the oil, whose supporters see it as a miracle drug despite the lack of clear scientific evidence of its effect. Others unable to move faced drastic situations.
Abe Hopkins, the 6-year-old son of Mike and Kelli Hopkins, died from a seizure in July, after the Covington family unsuccessfully lobbied for the passage of Peake’s bill.
The type of regulation and legislation discussed would take between six months and a year to implement if a new bill is passed in the spring. Peake said he would push for an immediate provision that would allow families to possess the drug without fear of prosecution while waiting for production companies to form.
“Let’s do something that gives immediate access to families, that protects them from prosecution,” Peake said. “Then let’s set up a cultivation model in our state where we can determine how to regulate it and restrict it.”
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