Advocates seeking an expansion of medical marijuana in Georgia have released a new advertisement that calls on lawmakers to create a state-based program to grow and cultivate the cannabis-based medication.
Georgians for Freedom in Health Care produced the spot, which will appear online in social media applications and will be sent directly to elected officials.
The video comes just weeks after a public opinion poll found 84 percent of Georgia voters support an in-state cultivation program with strict regulations.
State Rep. Allen Peake, R-Macon, who has championed the medical marijuana effort, plans to introduce legislation this year that would allow it, but Gov. Nathan Deal has said he has great concerns about any program to grow marijuana in Georgia.
Lawmakers in 2015 approved legislation that legalized the possession of a certain type of cannabis oil by patients suffering from specific diseases, including cancer, Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy. But with no state-based source for the medication, families have had to risk arrest by traveling to other states to buy the oil.
Hundreds of Georgians have nonetheless signed up for the program.
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