“It is a big day. We’re very very excited.”

Dr. Lisa Pinkney reacted Wednesday to the new state rules now adopted that will oversee the testing, inspections and distribution of medical marijuana. Now potentially within weeks, Georgia will see its first legal sales - for medical use - in the industry.

Pinkney is president of Trulieve Ga Inc., one of two companies that were awarded production licenses last fall. “It’s a great start. It’s appropriate for Georgia, and we believe that (the new rules) provide safe guidelines for us to administer medical cannabis,” Pinkney tells WSB Radio.

On Wednesday in a unanimous vote, the Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission gave the set of rules the green-light. “It is a milestone in reaching the ultimate goal of providing quality products to our patients across this great state of Georgia, who have waited a long time to get the medical relief they need,” said Sid Johnson, chair of the Commission.

Trulieve, along with Botanical Sciences LLC, will now operate under the guidelines from production to market for sale.

This opens the door wide for registered patients to have the legal way to buy Low THC oil that Georgia law has allowed them to have and use since 2015.

The treatment has been highly sought-after by patients suffering from several illnesses, including severe seizures, Parkinson’s disease and terminal cancers.

THC is the compound that gives users a high. The product to be sold in Georgia can have no more than 5% of the compound in it.

Trulieve and Botanical Sciences can each have up to six dispensaries in Georgia. For Trulieve, it is planning four to start - in Macon, Marietta, Newnan and Pooler. Trulieve’s Pinkney tells WSB the Macon location could begin selling in late February. Metro Atlanta’s Marietta dispensary could begin sales sometime in March.

Pinkney says her company has already been cultivating its plants for the past couple of months, and now are in production of its product.

“Once they approve the labs and approve the dispensary application, the products go to third-party testing and then we go to market.”

Only patients or caregivers who have a valid Low-THC Oil Patient Registry card will be allowed to purchase products at dispensaries.

Georgia is within a group of nearly 40 states with medical marijuana programs.

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