A showdown over how to legalize medical marijuana in Georgia appears more likely than ever, after Senate leaders signaled Friday they want to restrict access to only a limited trial program for children with epilepsy.
It’s a dramatic counterpoint to a proposal passed overwhelmingly Wednesday by the state House, which would make it legal to possess limited quantities of medical marijuana with a doctor’s prescription for more than half a dozen disorders.
Both plans involve legalizing cannabis oil — which is harvested from the marijuana plant but does not create the high that recreational use of marijuana produces — and no other form of the plant.
The Senate plan, which will be introduced Monday at the Capitol as Senate Bill 185, would restrict the oil's use to only a four-year research trial program conducted through the University System of Georgia. Only children under 18 suffering from epilepsy would be eligible, and they must either have been Georgia-born or have lived in the state for at least two years.
It seems designed to curry favor with Gov. Nathan Deal who late last year announced plans to start clinical trials involving cannabis oil, including at the state’s Georgia Regents University. Those trials have not started yet, but the Senate plan would essentially legalize them.
The House plan, known as House Bill 1, has no age limits and would decriminalize the possession of up to 20 ounces of cannabis oil that contains no more than 5 percent of THC, the chemical that produces the euphoric high associated with marijuana.
Patients would have to have a state registration card, which can only be granted by a physician for patients with one of nine specific disorders: cancer; Crohn’s disease; fibromyalgia; Lou Gehrig’s disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis); mitochondrial disease; multiple sclerosis; parkinson’s disease; seizure disorders; and sickle cell disease.
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