DEA warns Georgia to cancel plans to change into first state to permit pharmacies to promote medical marijuana
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is warning Georgia to not transfer ahead with its plan to change into the primary state to permit pharmacies to distribute medical marijuana.
DEA officers informed pharmacies that shelling out medical marijuana would violate federal legislation. The Georgia Entry to Medical Hashish Fee, which oversees the state’s medical marijuana trade, mentioned it can not override the federal ban regardless of state legislation permitting pharmacies to promote the merchandise.
The Georgia Board of Pharmacy started accepting purposes in October for pharmacies to dispense marijuana merchandise. Licenses have already been issued to 23 unbiased pharmacies within the Peach State.
The state needs pharmacists to be allowed to proceed offering consultations for medical hashish merchandise as they do with different medicine, The Georgia Entry to Medical Hashish Fee’s govt director Andrew Turnage informed The Atlanta Journal-Structure.
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The DEA mentioned in a memo despatched to pharmacies that none of them can lawfully possess, deal with or dispense marijuana or associated merchandise containing greater than 0.3% tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive chemical often called THC that offers individuals a excessive.
The DEA memo was revealed on-line by the group Sensible Approaches to Marijuana, which opposes marijuana legalization.
Georgia allows patients with medical wants to purchase medical marijuana merchandise with as much as 5% THC, whereas marijuana bought for leisure use sometimes has a better stage.
In line with the DEA, merchandise derived from a hashish plant with a THC content material above 0.3% are unlawful underneath federal drug legislation.
The state has permitted sufferers with sure sicknesses and doctor approval to own and devour low-THC medical hashish merchandise since 2015, however there was no authorized means for them to purchase the product in Georgia till 2015.
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Leisure marijuana is authorized in 24 states throughout the nation, whereas one other 23 permit some type of medical hashish, in accordance with the Nationwide Convention of State Legislatures.
Ira Katz of Little 5 Factors Pharmacy in Atlanta informed WXIA-TV that he believes pharmacies ought to have the ability to dispense marijuana products similar to marijuana dispensaries do.
“It simply doesn’t make any sense to me that folks can go to a dispensary and to not a pharmacy,” he mentioned. “We’d be shopping for it from the identical growers.”
Whereas Katz mentioned he understands federal legislation trumps state legislation, he believes the DEA’s stance will harm sufferers who depend on medical hashish.
“We’re essentially the most regulated trade in healthcare. That’s what shocked me. That’s what blows me away on the subject of why the DEA will not be transferring on this. They don’t see what we see right here each single day,” Katz mentioned, referring to sufferers who want the drugs.
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The DEA’s stance might change if a latest proposal to ease restrictions on marijuana strikes ahead. In August, the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies proposed taking marijuana off the banned record of Schedule I substances and reclassifying it as a lower-risk Schedule III drug.
Authentic article supply: DEA warns Georgia to cancel plans to become first state to allow pharmacies to sell medical marijuana
