Woodkirk Stone
ATLANTA (AP) – A Georgian regulator is getting closer to issuing licenses to cultivate medical marijuana, but not quite there yet.
The Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission voted on Wednesday to finalize the ratings given to growers’ requests. These ratings will be used to assign licenses, but the commission failed to assign them.
After nearly two hours of closed-door executive session, the commission chairman addressed members of the public who had logged in to the virtual meeting to say that they would not be issuing licenses yet, while acknowledging tensions over the pace of the application approval process.
“Please do not blow up the phones of staff or anyone, or Commissioners,” Commission Chairman Dr Christopher Edwards said. “Let them go home to their families.
Joshua Littrell, CEO of Veterans for Cannabis, said he was eager for the commission to issue licenses.
“We’re so close, but still so far,” Littrell said. “Right now they know the winners, so what are we waiting for? No one will withdraw their candidacy. These companies did not tie up millions of dollars and then back down at the last minute.
Almost 70 companies have applied for the issuance of six licenses.
The commission had previously promised to issue licenses by June 30. Patients and applicants have become frustrated with the wait.
Edwards, who is unpaid as chairman, said the committee would release “intent to attribute information” at the next meeting, but did not say when that would be.
The next step for the commission is to contact applicants “to find out about interest or extensions or responses or withdrawals, if necessary,” Edwards said.
Georgia legalized the oil and low-THC products for people with health conditions in 2015, but only created a legal framework for production last year.
Zane Bader, co-founder of the Georgia Cannabis Trade Association, said applicants had expressed concerns about the process and whether the agency had the staff or the capacity to answer questions about the complexity of the application requirements. Hundreds of questions were submitted by companies and published in a document on the Commission’s website, many of which responded with the phrase: “The applicant must determine his approach without expecting advice from the Commission on business processes ”.
“As a trade association, one of the things we try to do is make sure that the board has the resources to do its job well and that all businesses have an environment where they can actually thrive and excel, ”Bader said. “I think it’s going to have to change the way the program is set up to make that happen.”
The commission’s executive director, Andrew Turnage, did not respond to questions about the commission’s timing, funding or staff.
According to the commission’s annual report, Turnage is the only paid staff member.
The Governor’s Planning and Budget Office originally recommended that the commission be given a start-up budget of $ 1.2 million. Instead, lawmakers allocated $ 225,000 for the 2020 budget year. The commission reported that the funding did not cover its basic expenses. For the 2021 fiscal year just ended, the commission requested $ 531,000 to fund operating expenses and add a lawyer. He received $ 352,137.
Former Republican State Representative Allen Peake of Macon was one of the main supporters of legalizing low THC oil when he sat in the General Assembly. He continued to work with what he called an “underground network” to bring oil from out of state to Georgian families. Importing the oil is illegal. He applied for a processing license.
“We are two years away from the passage of a bill that says you can grow, process and distribute medical cannabis oil in our state,” he said. “But we don’t yet have the licenses issued to people to allow them to do that.”
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This story was produced by Fresh Take Georgia, an information service of the Center for Sustainable Journalism at Kennesaw State University. The reporter can be contacted at [email protected]