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Cannabis oil bill advances by one-vote margin

Medical cannabis oil

ATLANTA -- A controversial new medical marijuana bill took a step forward in the Georgia legislature Monday. If approved, backers say cannabis oil could become a treatment alternative to opioids for some ailments.

When Georgia enacted a medical marijuana law in 2015, it drew up a list of ailments that were approved for medical marijuana treatments. But lawmakers drew a line on chronic and intractable pain, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Critics said those too ailments were too vague and too likely to be used by folks who wanted to abuse the system. But in the years since, the opioid crisis has exploded. Much of the opioid crisis is driven by medical patients who get opioid prescriptions to treat pain. The bill that passed a House committee Monday adds chronic intractable pain and PTSD to the list of ailments treatable with cannabis oil.

"If we really want to deal with the opioid epidemic in our state, then adding intractable pain and PTSD will go a long way toward getting off opioid usage and abuse in our state," said state Rep. Allen Peake (R-Macon), who has led the medical marijuana debate at the Capitol for years.

Peake says the new bill still faces an uphill battle. The House committee that passed the bill adding PTSD and intractable pain to the list of approved cannabis oil ailments approved it by only one vote.

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