How 'Marijuana Refugees' Brought Legal Cannabis To Georgia

[Jacob Redmond]

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal on Friday said he would sign into law a bill that would make the Peach State the 24th state to legalize medical marijuana, continuing the rapid expansion of cannabis into the Deep South and underscoring a dramatic shift in pot politics for social conservatives in the US.

With Governor Deal's OK, the law will allow certified Georgia families to possess up to 20 ounces of nonintoxicating cannabidiol extract (CBD) for use in treating symptoms of eight health conditions, without fear of prosecution.

The law, dubbed "Haleigh's Hope Act" after a child it will affect, could help as many as 500,000 Georgians, said Rep. Allan Peake, a Macon Republican who fought for the passage of what was only two years ago a long-shot gambit.

Following on the heels of similar, but much narrower laws that passed last year in Florida, South Carolina, and Tennessee, Deal, a Republican, has said he's mainly reaching out to 17 "marijuana refugee" families that moved from Georgia to Colorado in order to be able to legally obtain the substance to help with their children's treatment.

But more broadly, the sight of Southern Republican governors such as Deal, Gov. Nikki Haley in South Carolina and Gov. Rick Scott in Florida signing even narrow medical marijuana laws highlights a rapidly shifting political landscape for conservative politicians, including potential Republican presidential candidates.

"This is tough for the Republican Party because it's got this libertarian component that says that we should legalize, period, and then you've got social conservatives that oppose marijuana for health, paternalistic, or moral reasons," says Rob Mikos, a Vanderbilt University political scientist who specializes in the nexus between federalism and drug policy. "Maybe some conservatives are seeing these CBD laws as a compromise that helps a small sub-set of the population but doesn't open the floodgates."

Just this week, Sen. Rand Paul, a likely presidential candidate, co-sponsored with Democrats a federal bill, the CARERS Act, which marks the first time a medical marijuana bill has been introduced in both houses of Congress.

It "could represent a turning point in the national debate about this much-maligned plant," writes libertarian drug policy expert Jacob Sullum, on Forbes.

There have been other signs of philosophical shifts among top conservatives.

Last year, Sen. Ted Cruz railed against the decision by the Justice Department to continue to allow states to experiment with legal recreational marijuana. But earlier this month, Senator Cruz, who announced his presidential candidacy this week, took a different tack, saying federalism should allow for states to experiment with marijuana policy without fear of federal intervention.

At the same time, some legalization proponents say the CBD-only strategy by conservatives is a prohibitionist ruse, since the laws, most of which don't provide a legal way for patients to actually obtain the extract, still leave legitimate users susceptible to felony prosecutions.

"What appeared at first to be movement within the GOP to buck the usual tone-deaf and compassionless 'Just Say No' policy of drug reform has actually turned out to be nothing more than another delay tactic of prohibitionists and a new strategy for Republicans to ... appear compassionate while appeasing voters," writes *one website *edit*

Alternatively, analysts say the acceptance by states like Georgia of even a highly regulated, non-psychoactive medical marijuana protocol represents a deeper debate within the Republican Party over whether helping vulnerable Americans with health conditions will in turn lead to broader acceptance of legal recreational marijuana.

Indeed, on the same day the Georgia House approved "Haleigh's Hope Act," a North Carolina legislative committee voted without comment to kill a medical marijuana bill. *edit*

"Obviously the stories are heart-wrenching," Representative Arp told WRAL, in Raleigh, after the hearing. Still, "I don't think [medical marijuana] is appropriate."

After the Georgia vote, however, Sebastian Cotte, who moved his family from Georgia to Colorado last summer so his son, Jagger, could legally receive CBD, disagreed with Arp's sentiment.

The new law "is going to let us come home," Mr. Cotte told WMAZ-TV in Macon.

News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: How 'marijuana refugees' brought legal cannabis to Georgia - CSMonitor.com
Author: Patrik Jonsson
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Photo Credit: David Goldman
Website: The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com

 

[420 Warrior]

Been saying it for years, here at 420 Magazine and everywhere else, that this part of the country is the key to federal acceptance of Cannabis.

I don't believe that Georgia alone is the answer, but what I am saying is that if we can break down the barriers of the "bible belt" mentality of the southeast part of this country, then the federal legal status of Cannabis will fall like a house of cards.

What allot of people don't seem to realize is that it's not so much the government officials we have to get on board here but it's more to do with these hard line christian groups that are the real obstacle. These people will stop at nothing to undermine any attempt at Cannabis for medical use, let alone for recreational use. The truth means nothing to them, it's all about control of your thought process and personal beliefs, free thinking is not an option for them...Believe me, I've seen it for myself.

 

[Colesdad]

I live in the Bible Belt. I, too, believe once these states start getting on board, things will happen very quickly at the Federal level. Hopefully SC will follow GA's lead. And NC is going to do what SC does.

 

[420 Warrior]

I live in the Bible Belt. I, too, believe once these states start getting on board, things will happen very quickly at the Federal level. Hopefully SC will follow GA's lead. And NC is going to do what SC does.

Yea brother, I don't know what it is with people here in the southeast but for what ever reason, people tend to just blindly believe whatever the government or their preacher tells them, whether it be right or wrong, they just go along with whatever they say like a bunch of mindless drones.

The thing that really kills me the most, is that even the people who use Cannabis and know better seem to just want to sit on the sidelines and do nothing to make a change. Everyone wants the laws to be changed but are unwilling to help in the re-education process that we so desperately need, like things are just going to fix themselves or, they just want someone else to fix the problem with no help from themselves.

I think these people may just jump on the bandwagon if we can just get a movement started, involving tens of thousands of Cannabis crusaders who's mission is to re-educate people to the truth about our beloved plant but the sad truth is that even people who use Cannabis are so in the dark themselves and are the ones who need educating the most. You can test this theory by just asking them if they even know that there are bills on the table trying to get medical Cannabis in place in these states? I'll bet that 9 out of 10 of them have no idea.

People, it's imperative that this website be brought to their attention and we get people reading and learning about what it really means to get Cannabis legalized in this country. They need to realize that the legalization of our beloved plant will help to put an end to unjust prison sentencing, put an end to black market deaths, put an end to most hard drug use and put an end to so much suffering by those who will benefit from the medicinal properties of Cannabis and that's not even counting the fact that we will finally be free to choose what we do with our own bodies with no harm being done to anyone else.

Have you talked to your friends about 420 Magazine? Have you written your government officials? Have you yourself read everything you can get your hands on to learn about Cannabis? People tend to fallow the crowd and if we can build that crowd, one of us at a time, then the next thing you know it'll grow so large that these nay sayers won't have a leg to stand on anymore, but it's got to start somewhere and I believe in my heart that 420 Magazine is just the kind of tool to get that job done because this is where all the information in the world is to start that re-education process, but if people aren't aware of this place then they won't know to come here and learn something.

I myself tell everyone who even brings up Cannabis or smoking a joint or using marijuana or whatever about 420 Magazine and even pull up the site on my smartphone and show them where they can find out anything they want to know about Cannabis, does everyone else do this? If you don't then you really need to and even if they don't pursue it, at least you can feel good about the fact that you tried. We're here already, so it's up to us to get the word out...does that make since?