Georgia Legislature Likely To Break Medical Marijuana Licensing Deadlock This Week

Legislators in Georgia are likely to vote this week on medical marijuana licensing regulations that would help legal cannabis vendors in the state to finally begin opening dispensaries and selling the plant.

A bureaucratic deadlock of the legislature’s own making has marred the industry since Republican Gov. Brian Kemp first signed a legal medical cannabis bill in April 2019. House Bill 324, also known as the Georgia Hope Act, gives patients the legal right to use low-THC medical cannabis oils with up to 5 percent THC.

The law allows six producers and two universities to cultivate medical cannabis in Georgia, while giving pharmacies legal rights to sell the plant. It leaves the door open for regulators to also authorize private dispensaries.

Over 20,000 patients are signed up for the program, but it’s still yet to launch.

“It’s definitely disheartening,” cannabis advocate Jim Wages told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We’ve been fighting years for this, and we still don’t have anything we can go into the store and buy.”

The matter is personal for Wages, whose 18-year-old daughter suffers from a rare form of epilepsy called Dravet syndrome.

“It’s just gotten to the point where we need to move forward with this thing,” he said.

Last year, Georgia’s Republican-led Senate and House approved Senate Bill 195 to allow the six producers to each operate five dispensaries. The bill also expanded the medical industry to include other low-THC products like cannabis flower and edibles as legal products that dispensaries could sell. But a bevy of lawsuits from 16 other companies left out of the licensing lottery has stalled Georgia’s medical cannabis industry to this day.

This week, though, the stalemate could end. A Senate bill designed to give final approval to the six producers along with a House bill that would throw out last year’s lottery results and restart the licensing process with a new competitive bidding process promises to move the industry forward one way or another. Legislators could deliberate on the bills as early as Tuesday.

Advocates and industry attorneys have warned lawmakers that without any action, the licensing process could drag on for several more years. In the meantime, thousands of prospective cannabis patients in Georgia would continue to live without legal medical access to the plant.