Georgia’s medical marijuana fight is heating up at the Capitol, with a new Senate effort to restrict access to only a very limited trial program involving children with epilepsy likely on a fast track before a key deadline next week.
The sponsor of that bill, state Sen. Lindsey Tippins, R-Marietta, said Monday that he believes Senate Bill 185 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.
The plan differs dramatically from House Bill 1, a proposal the House passed last week that would make it legal for someone with a doctor's prescription to possess limited amounts of the oil to treat more than half a dozen disorders, including cancer, Parkinson's disease and sickle cell disease.
“I just think philosophically we’re not on the same page of where we want to go,” Tippins said. “Mine’s very focused, very specific. I want to start by defining the problem and I want to solve that problem and I want to do it medically. If this drug is efficacious, the quickest way to get it approved or rescheduled by FDA in federal law is to have a clinical trial with empirical data other than casual observation.”
The oil, used to treat certain seizure disorders in both children and adults, 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.
Gov. Nathan Deal on Monday urged both sides to find common ground, saying he thought “I had made it clear with regard to the House legislation that I was supportive of making sure we did whatever we could to bring the families and children who are now in Colorado and other states, to be able to bring them back to Georgia. And I think that’s what the initial legislation was designed to try to do.”
SB 185 may be heard in committee as soon as Thursday and would likely hit the Senate floor by March 13 — the deadline for bills to pass at least one chamber in the Legislature.
Tippins’ concerns about the House plan includes its emphasis on in-state immunity for possession of what federal officials still classify as a dangerous drug. “I don’t believe HB 1 would ever lead to the valid legal use of canniboidal oil in treatment of seizures because it meets none of the criteria of FDA,” he said.
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