Georgia bill to jumpstart low THC oil production headed to conference committee

ATLANTA – A bill to try to speed up the process of issuing production licenses for low THC oil in Georgia will likely be assigned to a conference committee later this week.

Monday, the Georgia Senate unanimously approved a House bill that addressed the issue but not before stripping out the House’s language and replacing it with the Senate’s own proposal.

“We took their bill and put ours back in it,” explained state Sen. Dr. Ben Watson, R-Savannah.  

Both chambers hope to find a solution for patients waiting for the oil after protests stalled the licensing process last year.

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State lawmakers originally made it legal for patients with a limited number of conditions to possess low THC oil back in 2017. Those patients, or their caregivers, could have up to 20 ounces of the product, as long as they registered with the state. They could not, however, buy it in Georgia and had to break federal law to smuggle it into the state.

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In 2019, the legislature voted to remedy that by passing a law to create the Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission. They tasked the commission with selecting two large license holders and four smaller ones.

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There were 69 different companies that submitted bids and the commission announced its intent to award licenses to six of them in July 2021. Many of the unsuccessful bidders filed protests and the commission has yet to award a single license.

The Senate’s proposal would force their hand, requiring the commission to act by May 31, 2022.  

“We’re just asking the committee and commission to do their job and to finish it by May 31st,” said Sen. Watson.

The House’s proposal presented a different approach.  

“Our version would send all 69 applicants to the Department of Administrative Services and then require them to use a third-party consulting scoring firm that has done this in other states to score those 69 and come up with the two large licenses and four small,” said state Rep. Bill Werkheiser, R-Glennville.  

Rep. Werkheiser’s bill would also require the commission to purchase low THC oil to provide to the patients on the registry as a temporary fix until the licenses can be approved.  

According to the Georgia Department of Public Health, there are currently 22,503 active patients and 16,199 active caregivers on the state’s Low THC Oil Registry.

“I think I can say that with confidence that every member of the General Assembly wants to get the medicine to the constituents as quickly as possible,” said Rep. Werkheiser.

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