Three bills changing the way Georgia regulates hemp and medical cannabis have cleared the Senate ahead of Thursday’s Crossover Day deadline. The votes on the bills are some of the only ones this session that didn’t fall cleanly along party lines, with Senate Republicans divided over expanding medical access to cannabis and members of both parties split over new regulations on recreational hemp products.
Medical Cannabis
Senate Bill 220, also known as the “Putting Georgia’s Patients First Act,” passed in a contentious 39-17 vote after more than an hour of debate in the Senate. Like its counterpart in the other chamber, House Bill 227, the bill replaces the term “low-THC oil” with “medical cannabis,” in Georgia code, removes requirements that certain medical diagnoses like cancer or Parkinson’s disease be “severe or end stage,” and adds Lupus to the list of qualifying health conditions.
Unlike the House version, SB 220 removes an existing prohibition against vaping cannabis oil and raises the percentage of THC that medical cannabis products may contain from 5% to 50%.
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