Days after prosecutors and law enforcement came out against a medical marijuana bill that’s now before the state House; Gov. Nathan Deal is echoing some of their concerns.
The bill would grant immunity from prosecution not only to families of child with seizure disorders who bring cannabis oil in from other states where it’s legal, but those suffering from 16 other ailments including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and autism.
Representatives from the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, the Georgia Sheriffs’ Association, and the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police testified before a House committee this week that they oppose the expanded list saying it would be too difficult to track that many people.
He says, the more people who are eligible to have cannabis oil, the more likely there will be abuse.
“I share those concerns; that’s why it’s difficult to draft this kind of legislation,” Deal tells WSB’s Sandra Parrish.
“We want the cannabis oil to be available for the children for whom it is apparently very therapeutically valuable; but by the token, we do not want it misused,” says Deal.
At the Tuesday hearing, bill sponsor Rep. Allen Peake (R-Macon) was clear he did not want to reduce the number of illnesses on the list naming individuals pushing for the legislation who would be shut out.
“As we consider these diagnoses and whether to include them or exclude them, and I’m going to ask that you include every single one of them, just remember that these are real lives that we’re talking about… real individuals that could potentially benefit and have their lives changed by access to this cannabis oil,” he says.