Georgia Governor Signs Bill Allowing Medical Cannabis for PTSD and Intractable Pain
Legislation to expand Georgia’s medical cannabis program has been signed into law by Governor Nathan Deal.
Governor Deal signed House Bill 65 into law today, meaning it will take full effect on July 1. The new law ads post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and intractable pain to the state’s list of medical conditions that qualify an individual to become a legal medical cannabis patient. The legislation was passed by the Senate in March by a vote of 37 to 14. A week later it was passed by the House of Representatives 146 to 10.
Georgia’s medical marijuana law – passed in 2015 – allows certain qualified persons to legally possess up to 20 fluid ounces of “low THC oil”. It authorizes the Georgia Department of Public Health to issue a “Low THC Oil Registry Card” to qualified individuals.
Current qualifying conditions in Georgia include:
- Cancer, when such diagnosis is end stage or the treatment produces related wasting illness or recalcitrant nausea and vomiting
- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, when such diagnosis is severe or end stage
- Seizure disorders related to diagnosis of epilepsy or trauma related head injuries
- Multiple sclerosis, when such diagnosis is severe or end stage
- Crohn’s disease
- Mitochondrial disease
- Parkinson’s disease, when such diagnosis is sever or end stage
- Sickle cell disease, when such diagnosis is severe or end stage
- Tourette’s syndrome, when such syndrome is diagnosed as severe
- Autism spectrum disorder, when (a) patient is 18 years of age or more, or (b) patient is less than 18 years of age and diagnosed with severe autism
- Epidermolysis bullosa
- Alzheimer’s disease, when such disease is severe or end stage
- AIDS when such syndrome is severe or end stage
- Peripheral neuropathy, when symptoms are severe or end stage
- Patient is in hospice program, either as inpatient or outpatient