ATLANTA — After two rancorous years of squabbling, confusion and heated debate, Georgia appears on the verge of having a medical marijuana law after the state Senate passed a sweeping bill Tuesday that would allow cannabis oil to be used to treat eight medical conditions.
The Senate passed a substitute measure to a House bill that passed overwhelmingly. The substitute was developed in the past few weeks by the upper chamber’s Health and Human Services Committee.
It now goes back to the full House for tweaking, since the Senate substitute deleted Fibromyalgia from the list of diagnoses contained in the original bill, sponsored by Rep. Allen Peake, R-Macon.
An ebullient Peake said he is confident the House will quickly pass the substitute and that Gov. Nathan Deal could sign it into law, possibly by week’s end.
Georgia would become the 37th state to have some sort of medical marijuana law. Peake said 23 states and Washington, D.C., have laws allowing the use of marijuana extracts with no limits on the levels of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the psychoactive ingredient. An additional 12 states allow medical marijuana only for epilepsy and limit THC.