ATLANTA — The Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission voted to approve regulations for two companies that received licenses to manufacture and distribute low THC oil on Wednesday.
Despite that, there’s still no timeline on when that could begin. Now, the bureaucracy holding things up is incredibly frustrating to Georgia families.
“This is seven years of frustration to get to this point but at least we’re finally hopefully making progress,” Atlanta resident Shannon Cloud said.
Cloud added that for her family has battled for legal access to medical cannabis for years, but to no avail.
“We got involved in this fight because of my daughter who has seizures and through this process, we learn just how many people there are in Georgia that need this medicine and can truly benefit from it,” Cloud said
She added that the oil can help her daughter speak and think more clearly but access feels impossible.
“We passed a law that said that we can possess the oil, but we have no way to legally purchase it in Georgia and so families have had to get really creative, often breaking state and federal laws in order to get theiir hands on it and quite frankly many people haven’t been willing to take that risk,” Cloud went on.
But that will soon change.
During the meeting on Wednesday, the Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission gave Botanical Sciences LLC and Truelieve Georgia Inc. the final approval for licenses to manufacture and distribute the medicine. They also approved rules to regulate their organizations and how patients can receive the medicine.
“The notable and newsworthy item in the milestones for the commission is the issuance of the our class one production licenses,” said Andrew Turnage, the executive director of the commission.
Cloud hopes the votes mean that the companies will soon finally be able to begin the process soon.
“The idea that there will be potentially 30 or more locations spread around the state that patients have the ability to go to and have different options is just incredible,” Cloud said.
The governor would still have to sign off on all of these aspects, no word on if or when that will be done.
Here is a full timeline of Georgia's fight for medical marijuana: