The Georgia Senate overwhelmingly passed a medical marijuana measure Friday that would allow only a very limited form of the drug to be used in clinical trials involving children with epilepsy.
Senate Bill 185 is one of two medical marijuana bills being considered this year in the state Legislature. It differs dramatically from its counterpart, House Bill 1, which is much broader and would make it legal for someone with a doctor's prescription to possess limited amounts of cannibis oil to treat more than half a dozen disorders, including cancer, Parkinson's disease and sickle cell disease.
SB 185's sponsor, state Sen. Lindsey Tippins, R-Marietta, said he believes it is the safest way to introduce the use of cannabis oil in Georgia — doing so under strict medical supervision in a four-year clinical trial overseen by the federal Food and Drug Administration. On Friday, however, he said he would be willing to expand his measure to include more disorders.
In other words, passage of SB 185 is the Senate’s way of voicing support for a more conservative measure that’s likely to be negotiated over the next few weeks. The Senate is expected next week to formally take up HB 1 in its Health and Human Services Committee. Committee Chairwoman Renee Unterman, R-Buford, said she expects to offer compromise language to that bill at a meeting Thursday.
The cannibis oil is harvested from the marijuana plant but does not produce the high sought by recreational users of marijuana. More than a dozen families in the past year have moved to places such as Colorado where the oil’s use is allowed in limited amounts. Many of those families include children who suffer hundreds of seizures a day.
SB 185 passed on a 54-1 vote and now heads to the state House, although HB 1 is a more likely candidate to be the Legislature’s final medical marijuana bill.
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