Pro-pot group: Deal should decriminalize marijuana in Georgia
So how about it, Deal?
Georgia’s fight for medical marijuana appeared all but dead for the remainder of 2014. But how quickly things change.
Last Thursday, a proposed state law to legalize cannabis oil for people seeking treatment for cancer, glaucoma, and seizures stalled on the legislative session’s final day. But in a surprise move yesterday afternoon, Gov. Nathan Deal, who declined to take a stand on the issue during the 40-day legislative session, said that he would work with state agencies “to see if there is something that we can do to make this treatment possible.”
On the heels of Deal’s remarks, marijuana advocacy group Peachtree NORML took the issue one step further and urged the governor to decriminalize marijuana. Now it’s highly, highly unlikely that the governor would issue that kind of executive order in an election year (or any year, for that matter). But Executive Director Sharon Ravert went ahead and called for the action. In a statement, she writes:
“Governor Deal says he will be ‘talking with all of our state agencies ... to see if there is something we can do to make this treatment possible,’” says Ravert, “But he cannot pass laws, only the legislators can do that and they won’t be back in session until 2015. These kids can’t wait and their parents shouldn’t be forced to move out of Georgia or break the law. Governor Deal can act now to help kids and in the meantime, put together a commission to study medical marijuana laws from the twenty states with working programs to make recommendations for the 2015 Legislature.
Ravert explains that the governor does have the power to essentially decriminalize the use of marijuana. “Rather than passing the buck to ‘our state agencies’, Governor Deal could issue an executive order tomorrow to all state law enforcement agencies directing them not to pursue personal-use marijuana cases,” Ravert states. “Not only would that help the families of epileptic kids treat their seizures, but cancer patients could treat their nausea and pain, PTSD patients could treat their mental trauma, and Georgia parents wouldn’t have to worry that their college-aged children will go to jail if they experiment with marijuana.”
So how about it, Deal? Do it for the kids?