Botanical Sciences, LLC, in Glennville just last week was officially awarded a production license for the growing of medical cannabis, a 100,000 square foot facility to grow and manufacture this product.
The approval was made by the Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission. The facility is located on Cecil Anderson Road in Glennville, with structures already in place to begin production immediately. The Glennville site is under the direction of Dr. Robin Fowler, Founder and CEO of Botanical Sciences, LLC.
A ribbon-cutting event will be held on Tuesday, October 4, 2022, at 5 p.m. at the Botanical Sciences site at 442 Cecil Anderson Road.
Botanical Sciences in Glennville is one of only two approved 100,000 square foot indoor growing facilities in the state. The other was Florida-based Trulieve, with their facility to be built in Adel, Georgia. These two are now authorized to grow, manufacture, and sell marijuana oil in Georgia, and this oil can have no more than five percent THC. Each company will be authorized to open five dispensaries, which will serve only registered patients.
What this means for patients is that while medical cannabis has been legal for years, patients were not able to buy it in Georgia, only consume it. Now patients are allowed, with a doctor's approval, to use the medicine to treat illnesses, including severe seizures, Parkinson's disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, sickle-cell anemia, and terminal cancer, among others.
Before you can purchase medical cannabis in Georgia, a registry card is needed.
The procedure involves a physical by a physician, and if the physician determines that you can be issued a prescription for medical cannabis, he/she will submit the paperwork to the Dept. of Public Health. Then the Dept. of Public Health issues the registry card to the individual. Approximately 24,400 patients in Georgia are already authorized to use the drug.
Dr. Robin Fowler of Botanical Sciences in Glennville said he expects to have dispensaries open and operating by the end of the year. Hiring of employees will begin within the next 30 days.
"We are pleased with the great relationships we have formed in Glennville. We are honored to be awarded the license for this medical cannabis facility and to be able to take care of patients in Georgia," Dr. Fowler said.
The Georgia Legislature made an attempt to launch a medical cannabis program in 2015, but their law for legalizing possession of low-THC cannabis oil did not provide a legal means of obtaining the drug. In 2019, lawmakers put in place a licensing process for companies interested in getting into the medical cannabis business in Georgia.
Although the Commission originally intended to award six production licenses last year, the contracts were never finalized because protests were filed by 15 losing companies out of the 69 that had applied. These complaints put the medical marijuana program on hold for nearly a year, until Governor Brian Kemp appropriated $150,000 in emergency funds in April for an administrative law judge to quickly hold hearings and resolve the protests. Last week, the judge awarded two of the state's six licenses for 100,000 square foot indoor growing facilities while rejecting all the protests. Four other licenses will be awarded, but these will be for 50,000 square foot growing facilities, and the date of awarding of these is not yet set.
The Georgia General Assembly approved production of low THC oil three years ago, but the Commission delayed in completing the licensing process. A bill that would have required medical marijuana licenses to be issued by early June failed to pass in the closing hours of this year's legislative session.
