Jacob Redmond
Well-Known Member
Beckee Lynch has a plan for the next two weeks: "Pray a whole lot."
The Grayson-area mother of six is among numerous parents around Georgia watching anxiously as lawmakers consider whether to loosen the state's restrictions on medical marijuana. With the legislative session set to end April 2, Lynch says her desperation is growing.
"I don't have a lot of hope," said Lynch, who says her daughter Norah, 7, has grappled with debilitating seizures her whole life. "We're just kind of left out here to dry."
The mother says Norah, a snaggletooth, smiling brunette, has tried many medications through the years with little luck; seizures send her to the hospital and have stall her cognitive abilities by years, complications which Lynch says could be combated with medical marijuana.
Lawmakers in both chambers of the assembly say progress is on the horizon – they just can't say what that progress will be.
In the House, a bill aiming to allow non-psychoactive cannabis oil for people with a variety of medical conditions, including seizure disorders, handily passed and is awaiting Senate approval. Senators are more cautious. On Friday, they passed a less sweeping bill, allowing the oil only in clinical trials for seizure patients under 18.
"Understand this is a strictly emotional bill. The data is not there," Sen. Fran Millar, who represents parts of Gwinnett, said Friday, explaining the Senate's hesitancy to go as far as the House. But he added that a compromise with the House is likely.
Parents like Lynch are more in favor of the House's efforts.
The Senate bill, she said, wouldn't help her daughter, leaving the family with few options.
"The regular pharmaceutical drugs do not help her," Lynch said. "Sometimes even the trauma unit at the emergency room can't even get (the seizures) to stop. How many of her nine lives are left?"
Joining other Georgia families who've flocked to marijuana-friendly Colorado isn't a reasonable alternative for her family of six.
She is far from alone. As time runs out for legislators to act, many are writing letters, posting incessantly on social media, calling Senators and stopping by the Capitol to plead. They'll express their fears and frustrations to anyone who'll listen.
"I can't let my child die," said Sugar Hill mother Shaun Oglesby, who says her 8-year-old daughter, Ava, has had seizures since she was an infant.
"We've been through two dozen combinations of drugs," said Lawrenceville father Jeff Thrutchley, who describes his 28 year old, Rose, as cognitively more like an 8 or 9 year old.
"We never know what we're going to deal with on a daily basis. Is this going to be an emergency room day?" said Lawrenceville's Connie Grady, mother of Maureen, a 20 year old who also has cognitive troubles.
The adults with seizure disorders, fearful of the Senate bill's potential 18-years-old cutoff, appear to face a more difficult battle than the children. Naturally, they've garnered less sympathy than the kids; their faces aren't as heart-warming, their cries less sweet.
Their stories are, however, sympathetic.
"Epilepsy did not ask me how old I was," said Janel McDaniel, a 33-year-old from Braselton who says she's had seizures for two years. "My life is on hold and they have something that could potentially give me my life back."
Since the issues began, McDaniel says she's had to leave her career as a nurse and medical auditor for fear of an accident. She also stopped driving.
"My life is in shambles right now because pharmaceuticals are not controlling this," she said. "I don't want my children to find me dead."
Whether the age restriction will be part of the final legislation isn't yet clear. State Rep. Allen Peake, the Macon Republican leading the House's charge, isn't a fan.
He'll be working on that with his counterparts in the Senate, as well as ensuring that all the medical conditions laid out in the House bill end up in the final legislation.
"The key is making sure we have a bill that works to get our medical refugees home and that works for citizens to have protections here in Georgia," Peake said Friday.
Buford's Sen. Renee Unterman, the Republican chair of the Health and Human Services Committee who has been working with Peake, is among the sponsors of the bill with the age cap.
But Friday, on the floor of the Senate, Unterman told her colleagues that she anticipated a combination of the House and Senate bills to pass before the end of the session. She gave no real specifics on what the compromise would look like, but the priority, she said, was to help bring home the Georgia residents who've fled the state to get their children medical treatment.
"I feel 100 percent confident that we're going to achieve that goal," Unterman said.
News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Gwinnett families enter final push for medical cannabis in 2015 | Gwinnett Daily Post
Author: Joshua Sharpe
Contact: joshua.sharpe@gwinnettdailypost.com
Photo Credit: None Found
Website: Local news, sports, business, entertainment, community events | Gwinnett Daily Post
The Grayson-area mother of six is among numerous parents around Georgia watching anxiously as lawmakers consider whether to loosen the state's restrictions on medical marijuana. With the legislative session set to end April 2, Lynch says her desperation is growing.
"I don't have a lot of hope," said Lynch, who says her daughter Norah, 7, has grappled with debilitating seizures her whole life. "We're just kind of left out here to dry."
The mother says Norah, a snaggletooth, smiling brunette, has tried many medications through the years with little luck; seizures send her to the hospital and have stall her cognitive abilities by years, complications which Lynch says could be combated with medical marijuana.
Lawmakers in both chambers of the assembly say progress is on the horizon – they just can't say what that progress will be.
In the House, a bill aiming to allow non-psychoactive cannabis oil for people with a variety of medical conditions, including seizure disorders, handily passed and is awaiting Senate approval. Senators are more cautious. On Friday, they passed a less sweeping bill, allowing the oil only in clinical trials for seizure patients under 18.
"Understand this is a strictly emotional bill. The data is not there," Sen. Fran Millar, who represents parts of Gwinnett, said Friday, explaining the Senate's hesitancy to go as far as the House. But he added that a compromise with the House is likely.
Parents like Lynch are more in favor of the House's efforts.
The Senate bill, she said, wouldn't help her daughter, leaving the family with few options.
"The regular pharmaceutical drugs do not help her," Lynch said. "Sometimes even the trauma unit at the emergency room can't even get (the seizures) to stop. How many of her nine lives are left?"
Joining other Georgia families who've flocked to marijuana-friendly Colorado isn't a reasonable alternative for her family of six.
She is far from alone. As time runs out for legislators to act, many are writing letters, posting incessantly on social media, calling Senators and stopping by the Capitol to plead. They'll express their fears and frustrations to anyone who'll listen.
"I can't let my child die," said Sugar Hill mother Shaun Oglesby, who says her 8-year-old daughter, Ava, has had seizures since she was an infant.
"We've been through two dozen combinations of drugs," said Lawrenceville father Jeff Thrutchley, who describes his 28 year old, Rose, as cognitively more like an 8 or 9 year old.
"We never know what we're going to deal with on a daily basis. Is this going to be an emergency room day?" said Lawrenceville's Connie Grady, mother of Maureen, a 20 year old who also has cognitive troubles.
The adults with seizure disorders, fearful of the Senate bill's potential 18-years-old cutoff, appear to face a more difficult battle than the children. Naturally, they've garnered less sympathy than the kids; their faces aren't as heart-warming, their cries less sweet.
Their stories are, however, sympathetic.
"Epilepsy did not ask me how old I was," said Janel McDaniel, a 33-year-old from Braselton who says she's had seizures for two years. "My life is on hold and they have something that could potentially give me my life back."
Since the issues began, McDaniel says she's had to leave her career as a nurse and medical auditor for fear of an accident. She also stopped driving.
"My life is in shambles right now because pharmaceuticals are not controlling this," she said. "I don't want my children to find me dead."
Whether the age restriction will be part of the final legislation isn't yet clear. State Rep. Allen Peake, the Macon Republican leading the House's charge, isn't a fan.
He'll be working on that with his counterparts in the Senate, as well as ensuring that all the medical conditions laid out in the House bill end up in the final legislation.
"The key is making sure we have a bill that works to get our medical refugees home and that works for citizens to have protections here in Georgia," Peake said Friday.
Buford's Sen. Renee Unterman, the Republican chair of the Health and Human Services Committee who has been working with Peake, is among the sponsors of the bill with the age cap.
But Friday, on the floor of the Senate, Unterman told her colleagues that she anticipated a combination of the House and Senate bills to pass before the end of the session. She gave no real specifics on what the compromise would look like, but the priority, she said, was to help bring home the Georgia residents who've fled the state to get their children medical treatment.
"I feel 100 percent confident that we're going to achieve that goal," Unterman said.
News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Gwinnett families enter final push for medical cannabis in 2015 | Gwinnett Daily Post
Author: Joshua Sharpe
Contact: joshua.sharpe@gwinnettdailypost.com
Photo Credit: None Found
Website: Local news, sports, business, entertainment, community events | Gwinnett Daily Post
