Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal has signed legislation expanding the medical cannabis qualifying condition list to include six more conditions, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution report. Patients suffering from AIDS, Alzheimer’s disease, autism, epidermolysis bullosa, peripheral neuropathy, Tourette’s syndrome, and those in hospice care are now able to possess low-THC cannabis oil, but there is still no way to legally obtain it in the state.
Initially the bill would have dropped the allowable THC content from 5 percent to 3 percent; however, the chamber agreed to keep the 5 percent threshold intact after law enforcement and public health officials reported that there were no issues with the THC content.
State Rep. Allen Peake, a Republican who has been supplying cannabis oils to some of the state’s registered patients and author of the House version of the newly-signed bill, said the expansion offers patients “a ray of hope for a better quality of life.”
“My hope is that in 2018 we can fill the gaping hole that still remains, and provide legal access to medical cannabis oil here in our state with a safe, lab tested product produced within our own borders,” Peake said in a statement. “The job will not be finished until we accomplish this task.”
Georgia has 1,738 patients and 354 physicians registered with the medical cannabis program.
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