Read Allen Peake’s appeal to expand Georgia’s medical marijuana program

State Rep. Allen Peake is the unquestioned godfather of Georgia’s medical marijuana program, but his measure to expand the initiative this year seemed doomed before a late compromise between House and Senate lawmakers saved it.

House lawmakers overwhelmingly approved that deal on Tuesday, which expands the list of conditions eligible for the program, and the Senate is expected to follow suit this week.

Before the vote, the Macon Republican delivered an emotional speech thanking his colleagues for their support.

Here’s a snippet of it:

And before I yield for questions, I would like to add one final thought.

For four straight years, this body has stood up for the rights of hurting Georgia citizens to legally possess medical cannabis oil in our state.  Speaker Ralston has made it clear every year that this issue is important to this chamber.  And now we have taken the next step of allowing more of our citizens to have this option for their medical conditions.

Many of those citizens would like to thank you, but since they can’t stand with me in this well, I’m going to thank you for some of them.

On behalf of Colin, an 8-year-old autistic boy whose dad Dale has fought for several years for inclusion of autism on the registry, and who has been using medical cannabis oil illegally for two years, and who can now go out to eat with his parents, who has learned to start feeding himself, who just this past week said his first word – Momma.  On behalf of Colin, thank you for your support of this bill.

On behalf of Abby, a cute little 6-year-old girl, who suffers from such severe autism that she would bite her arms bloody and scratch herself until her skin bled for hours, whose mom tried everything possible to stop the raging, and finally tried medical cannabis oil illegally for Abby, and who has seen an almost miraculous improvement, and is calm, and happy, and learning, and who amazes her teachers every day with her improvement.  On behalf of Abby, thank you for your support of this bill.

On behalf of Gage, a strapping 17-year-old young man who has suffers from Tourette’s syndrome, so severe that last year he was having 4 tics every minute, over 1600 a day, that interrupted his life and left him unable to function normally, whose mom made the courageous decision last year to provide him medical cannabis oil illegally, and whose life for the last year has dramatically improved, with only 10-20 tics a week.  Gage is happy, healthy and thriving.  On behalf of Gage, thank you for supporting this bill. 

Read the full article here:  http://politics.blog.ajc.com/2017/03/28/read-allen-peakes-appeal-to-expand-georgias-medical-marijuana-program/