MONDAY, Oct. 23, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Four years after the state of Georgia approved the distribution of low-dose THC, medical marijuana may be sold at local pharmacies. That will make Georgia the first U.S. state where pharmacies sell medical cannabis, CNN reported.
By year’s end, patients who meet a very narrow criteria for medical cannabis use under Georgia’s law will be able to buy low-dose THC products at their local pharmacy.
What that will not mean is joints being sold at pharmacies, said Gary Long, CEO of the medical cannabis production company Botanical Sciences, one of two licensed distributors in Georgia, CNN reported. What it will mean is that pharmacies around the state that want to sell products with THC content of 5 percent or less can file an application with the Georgia Board of Pharmacy. Products may include oils, tinctures, topicals, capsules, and lozenges.
Long said 130 local pharmacies have agreed to sell his products. A professional association representing independent pharmacies said many of the state’s 400 independent pharmacies have seemed interested in getting the license.
Yet, it is still federally illegal to sell any form of cannabis. “It’s federally illegal for a pharmacist, I’m pretty certain, to dispense cannabis, but it’s also federally illegal to do anything with cannabis,” said Jay Wexler, a professor of law at Boston University School of Law and author of Weed Rules, a book focused on legalization. “In the cannabis space, many things are formally illegal, but the question becomes whether anybody can or is willing to do anything about it,” he told CNN.
Long is hoping to see increased access because Georgia’s medical marijuana law is still more restrictive than most states, CNN reported. Among those restrictions are that doctors can only prescribe the drug for people with 16 particular diseases, including some stages of cancer, posttraumatic stress disorder, and Alzheimer disease.
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