Republican Georgia Rep. Allen Peake is supplying low-THC cannabis oils to patients in his state due to the state’s limited laws that allow them to possess the products but offers no way for them to cultivate, import, or purchase them, the Associated Press reports. Peake, who championed Georgia’s medical cannabis legislation, has previously helped some families move from the state to Colorado so they would have legal access to medical cannabis treatments.
“We’re going to do whatever it takes to be able to help get product to these families, these citizens who have debilitating illnesses,” Peake said in the report, adding that he doesn’t know – and doesn’t ask – who delivers the boxes of cannabis oil to his Macon office.
Every time a new box is delivered to his office, Peake makes a donation to a medical cannabis research foundation in Colorado; he says the donations add up to about $100,000 per year. Peake is allowed to legally possess the oil because he has obtained a medical cannabis card from the Georgia Department of Public Health, despite the fact that he is not considered a qualified patient under the state’s rules.
In Georgia, about 1,300 patients are enrolled in the state program and, aside from Peake, their only option to obtain the oil is online, which runs afoul of federal law.