A Senate-approved bill that sought to gut Georgia’s intoxicating hemp products industry stalled in a House committee last week, saving the state’s hemp operators and entrepreneurs from the threat of a crackdown for at least another year, the Capitol Beat News Service reports.
The bill, SB 254, would have banned hemp products from containing any amount of THC as an ingredient. The bill was sponsored by Sen. Bill Cowsert (R), who warned of highly potent hemp products available in the state, arguing that “We are putting loaded guns in people’s hands in the form of a can, or a gummy, and we need to protect them.”
The Senate voted 42-14 to pass the proposal last month.
However, the bill stalled last week in the House Regulated Industries Committee under chair Rep. Alan Powell (R), who said he was reluctant to ban a plant “that God lets grow naturally,” the report said.
Powell heard testimony last week from both Sen. Cowsert and hemp operators, then he returned with his own amended version of the legislation, which removed all of the proposed hemp industry restrictions. Rather, Powell proposed expanding hemp retail sales to state-licensed package stores, or liquor stores.
The bill passed unanimously through the committee with Powell’s changes.
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