Cannabis in Georgia is legal for limited medical uses in the form of CBD oil, but illegal for recreational use.
Contents
2015 medical legalization
A measure to allow medical cannabis oil passed the Georgia House in February 2015. On April 16, 2015, the non-psychoactive form of marijuana oil (CBD oil, also known as "Charlotte's Web") was legalized for medical use in the state under HB 1, the Haleigh’s Hope Act.
Medical cannabis was not without precedent in Georgia; the state had conducted legal cannabis trials on cancer patients in the 1970s.
Illicit trade
In the 1970s and 1980s, a number of county sheriffs and deputies were prosecuted for their involvement in the drug trade, including Sheriff John David Davis, a former moonshiner who had been pardoned by President Nixon and was convicted in 1984 of smuggling cannabis into south Georgia. Davis's case parallels that of a number of other former moonshiners who segued into the cannabis trade.
1983 paraquat spraying
In 1983, amidst controversy, the Drug Enforcement Agency conducted aerial spraying of illegal cannabis plots in the Chattahoochee National Forest in northern Georgia, using the herbicide paraquat. Citizens and a congressman objected, noting paraquat's dangers, and a temporary restraining order was placed on further spraying. The federal Drug Abuse Policy Officer Pat McKelvey rebutted that paraquat is a safe and widely used herbicide, and alleged that the objections to the DEA spraying had been raised by cannabis growers and legalization advocates.