Georgia Senate Passes Bills To Expand Medical Marijuana Access And Limit THC In Hemp Beverages

“It’s a consumer protection bill that is not intended to impact processors that are already testing and labeling their products appropriately.”

By Maya Homan, Georgia Recorder

Three payments changing the way Georgia regulates hemp and medical cannabis have cleared the Senate forward of Thursday’s Crossover Day deadline. The votes on the payments are a few of the solely ones this session that didn’t fall cleanly alongside get together strains, with Senate Republicans divided over increasing medical entry to hashish and members of each events cut up over new rules on leisure hemp merchandise.

Medical hashish

Senate Bill 220, also called the “Putting Georgia’s Patients First Act,” handed in a contentious 39–17 vote after greater than an hour of debate within the Senate. Like its counterpart within the different chamber, House Bill 227, the invoice replaces the time period “low-THC oil” with “medical cannabis” in Georgia code, removes necessities that sure medical diagnoses like most cancers or Parkinson’s illness be “severe or end stage” and provides lupus to the checklist of qualifying well being situations.

Unlike the House model, SB 220 removes an current prohibition towards vaping hashish oil and raises the share of THC that medical hashish merchandise could comprise from 5 p.c to 50 p.c.

The invoice was amended on the ground to incorporate a provision permitting caregivers to choose up medical hashish from pharmacies. Three different amendments geared toward decreasing the quantity of THC allowed in medical hashish, eradicating the availability that enables for vaping, and eradicating PTSD and intractable ache from the checklist of authorised diagnoses failed throughout a collection of flooring votes.

Hemp payments

Two payments geared toward strengthening hemp rules in Georgia handed the Senate in decisive votes on Crossover Day, searching for to restrict leisure use of marijuana because the chamber concurrently eased restrictions for medical use.

Marietta Republican Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick’s SB 33 topics chemical compounds like delta-8 THC, delta-10 THC, hexahydrocannabinol (HHC) and different cannabinoids to testing and labeling rules that had been added final yr below SB 494. It handed in a 50–6 vote.

In her speech from the properly, Kirkpatrick mentioned her invoice is geared toward reducing down on unregulated hemp merchandise from China and different nations.

“This bill is not a ban,” Kirkpatrick mentioned. “It’s a consumer protection bill that is not intended to impact processors that are already testing and labeling their products appropriately. It’s intended to make sure that consumers buying these products are clear on what they’re buying.”

Senate Bill 254, sponsored by Athens Republican Bill Cowsert, seeks to impose new limits on THC-infused merchandise after the Georgia Department of Agriculture raised the utmost quantity of THC that may be included in a single beverage from 5 mg to 10 mg.

Cowsert urged lawmakers to codify the unique 5 mg serving measurement restrictions on THC-infused drinks, calling the higher-dose drinks a “loaded gun” and arguing that one 10 mg serving of THC was equal to 4 glasses of wine.

“Most states are limiting greatly the amount of THC that can be included in a beverage, or in a tincture, or any kind of lotions, or in gummies,” he mentioned. “And the reason is to protect consumers—protect the public—from the psychoactive components of THC.”

Like SB 33, the invoice consists of new restrictions on cannabinoid variants like delta-8 THC and delta-10 THC. It was finally amended on the ground by a slender 29–27 vote to ban all THC-infused drinks, and handed the Senate in a 42–14 vote.

This story was first published by Georgia Recorder.

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Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.