A proposal to revive Georgia’s stalled medical marijuana program cleared its first committee on a unanimous vote Tuesday.
The legislation would attempt to break bureaucratic delays by issuing medical marijuana licenses to 22 companies, which would then be authorized to produce and sell cannabis oil to registered patients.
Licenses would go to six companies that received tentative approval from a state board last year, along with 16 companies protesting that decision.
State Rep. Alan Powell said he wants to fix a “terrible process” that has frustrated patients and businesses.
“We passed a bill three years ago to allow for the growing and processing of medical cannabis, and three years later it’s still not come to fruition,” said Powell, a Republican from Hartwell and the sponsor of House Bill 1400. “Sometimes things happen, but that doesn’t make it right.”
The start-up of Georgia’s medical marijuana industry has been postponed by protests from businesses that applied for — but didn’t receive — medical marijuana licenses when they were awarded by the Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission in July.
Since then, their protests have been moving slowly through an administrative process to evaluate complaints of inconsistencies in the competitive bidding process. Even after the protests are resolved by the commission, those companies could file lawsuits that might take three years or more to move through the court system. [Read more at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution]
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