{"id":8025,"date":"2018-01-26T15:11:15","date_gmt":"2018-01-26T15:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/?p=9165"},"modified":"2018-01-26T15:11:15","modified_gmt":"2018-01-26T15:11:15","slug":"georgia-lawmakers-advance-medical-marijuana-cultivation-bill-more-hearings-may-follow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/georgia-lawmakers-advance-medical-marijuana-cultivation-bill-more-hearings-may-follow\/","title":{"rendered":"Georgia Lawmakers Advance Medical Marijuana Cultivation Bill, More Hearings May Follow"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/georgia-lawmakers-advance-medical-marijuana-cultivation-bill-more-hearings-may-follow\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p>A group of Georgia lawmakers voted to push a medical marijuana cultivation bill further through the Legislature, but the Gold Dome has proven a tough climate for growing cannabis.<\/p>\n<p>Macon Republican state Rep. Allen Peake wants the state to issue up to two licenses to grow cannabis and manufacture a liquid from it. State law allows Georgians who have a doctor&#8217;s recommendation and a state medical marijuana card to possess that oil for the treatment of symptoms of any of several diagnoses, including late-stage cancer.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What we&#8217;ve attempted to do in House Bill 645 is do what 30 other states have done, which is enact infrastructure for growing of marijuana for medicinal purposes only,&#8221; said Peake, so that the roughly 3,400 Georgians who are registered can get it.<\/p>\n<p>However, like all state laws that allow some kind of marijuana possession, Georgia&#8217;s medical marijuana law conflicts with the federal ban on cannabis. Georgians generally bring cannabis oil in from states like Colorado that are more permissive. In-state cultivation would make getting the oil easier for patients, though the federal prohibition would remain.<\/p>\n<p>In a unanimous voice vote on Wednesday, the House Medical Cannabis Working Group sent HB 645 to the state House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee. Hearings and approval from that committee would be the next step toward a full floor vote.<\/p>\n<p>House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, has endorsed medical marijuana cultivation. But this January, ahead of the session, he recommended a federal strategy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve been supportive of the initiatives that have gotten us to this point,&#8221; Ralston said, &#8220;but at some point we have to sort of confront the realty that as long as federal law is what federal law is, that there&#8217;s only so far that we can go. So I&#8217;ve encouraged the proponents of medical cannabis oil that maybe it&#8217;s time that the emphasis be put on Washington as opposed to the state level and hopefully they will do that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ralston&#8217;s comment came on Jan. 4, the same day that U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions put the marijuana industry into uncertainty. Sessions revoked an Obama-era guideline that encouraged federal law enforcement agencies not to prioritize going after marijuana that&#8217;s regulated by state law.<\/p>\n<p>And Republican Gov. Nathan Deal has not supported in-state cultivation over the several years that Peake has been lobbying for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A group of Georgia lawmakers voted to push a medical marijuana cultivation bill further through the Legislature, but the Gold&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/news\/medical-marijuana-news\/georgia-lawmakers-advance-medical-marijuana-cultivation-bill-hearings-may-follow\/\" class=\"read-more\">[Read More]<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1614,9,1,3],"tags":[4182],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8025"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8025\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}