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"We want to come home. That's where he was born, that's where he belongs, that's his state."
It's the plea of a father who dropped everything to save his four-year-old son.
"We knew Jagger had very limited time left with us, so we had to try everything and we had to do it quick," Sebastien Cotte told 13WMAZ.
But without a legal way to obtain medical marijuana in Georgia, the Cottes trekked cross-country from Atlanta to Colorado.
"There was a 50/50 chance he was not going to make the trip," Cotte said.
And a year after the first medical marijuana bill failed to pass, they're watching closely, hoping to make it back to Georgia.
On January 12, state legislators will meet again and say "yes" or "no" to the bills that could become law.
And some lawmakers will make a second push to ensure medical marijuana becomes legal this year.
That would allow families like the Cottes to come back to Georgia and legally treat their son, Jagger, with medical marijuana.
Jagger suffers from a rare mitochondrial disease, which results in severe pain and dozens of seizures a day.
But Jagger survived the trip west and recently celebrated his fourth birthday.
Doctors had told his parents that likely wouldn't happen.
They're just one of many families, who uprooted their lives, desperately clinging to the possibility of relief.
"It's an absolute disgrace that these families are having to break up their homes to come to Colorado to seek medical treatment. It's disgusting, actually, to watch and I see it firsthand every day," Jason Cranford, a botanist from Warner Robins, said.
Cranford moved to Colorado six years ago. He's considered an industry expert, with more than 15 years of experience working with medical cannabis.
"The medical benefits topple the scales when you're looking at the risk associated, the negative," Cranford said.
He only associates the risks to the carbon monoxide released when marijuana is smoked, but not in other forms like oils, pills, vapor and more.
But all of that is inaccessible in Georgia, so Katie Crosby packed her bags and made the same journey from Macon to Colorado a few days ago.
Crosby says doctors couldn't break her nearly 60-day fever or relieve her chronic pain that's been ongoing for a decade.
"We just decided, it's either this or a wheelchair," Crosby said.
It's a temporary trip to Colorado but she says though medical cannabis has nearly completely relieved her pain, she'd face prosecution for bringing any of that treatment across state lines back to Georgia.
"It took so much of the things that beat my body to get here, it fixed it so quickly, i was absolutely floored," she said.
And they know it's been said that too much of a good thing could be bad.
But when it comes to regulated cannabis that can't be smoked and doesn't cause a high, they say it's medicine, not a monster.
The first effort to legalize medical cannabis in Georgia, House Bill 885, failed last year.
The bill unanimously passed the Senate in March.
Then, it passed the House 171 to 4 but only after the addition of a separate mandate, requiring health insurance policies to cover the care of kids with autism.
But time ran out and that amended bill never made it back to the Senate floor for approval.
We also reached out to the four state representatives who voted against H.B. 885 last session.
They are Representatives Stephen Allison of Blairsville, Jeff Chapman of Brunswick, Carl Rogers of Gainesville and Ed Setzler from Acworth.
Rep. Allison declined any comment on his vote and the others didn't return our messages.
News Moderator: 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Medical marijuana bill to appear again
Author: Anita Oh
Contact: @anita_oh
Photo Credit: Sebastien Cotte
Website: Macon news, weather and traffic | Macon, GA - Warner Robins, GA | 13WMAZ.com
It's the plea of a father who dropped everything to save his four-year-old son.
"We knew Jagger had very limited time left with us, so we had to try everything and we had to do it quick," Sebastien Cotte told 13WMAZ.
But without a legal way to obtain medical marijuana in Georgia, the Cottes trekked cross-country from Atlanta to Colorado.
"There was a 50/50 chance he was not going to make the trip," Cotte said.
And a year after the first medical marijuana bill failed to pass, they're watching closely, hoping to make it back to Georgia.
On January 12, state legislators will meet again and say "yes" or "no" to the bills that could become law.
And some lawmakers will make a second push to ensure medical marijuana becomes legal this year.
That would allow families like the Cottes to come back to Georgia and legally treat their son, Jagger, with medical marijuana.
Jagger suffers from a rare mitochondrial disease, which results in severe pain and dozens of seizures a day.
But Jagger survived the trip west and recently celebrated his fourth birthday.
Doctors had told his parents that likely wouldn't happen.
They're just one of many families, who uprooted their lives, desperately clinging to the possibility of relief.
"It's an absolute disgrace that these families are having to break up their homes to come to Colorado to seek medical treatment. It's disgusting, actually, to watch and I see it firsthand every day," Jason Cranford, a botanist from Warner Robins, said.
Cranford moved to Colorado six years ago. He's considered an industry expert, with more than 15 years of experience working with medical cannabis.
"The medical benefits topple the scales when you're looking at the risk associated, the negative," Cranford said.
He only associates the risks to the carbon monoxide released when marijuana is smoked, but not in other forms like oils, pills, vapor and more.
But all of that is inaccessible in Georgia, so Katie Crosby packed her bags and made the same journey from Macon to Colorado a few days ago.
Crosby says doctors couldn't break her nearly 60-day fever or relieve her chronic pain that's been ongoing for a decade.
"We just decided, it's either this or a wheelchair," Crosby said.
It's a temporary trip to Colorado but she says though medical cannabis has nearly completely relieved her pain, she'd face prosecution for bringing any of that treatment across state lines back to Georgia.
"It took so much of the things that beat my body to get here, it fixed it so quickly, i was absolutely floored," she said.
And they know it's been said that too much of a good thing could be bad.
But when it comes to regulated cannabis that can't be smoked and doesn't cause a high, they say it's medicine, not a monster.
The first effort to legalize medical cannabis in Georgia, House Bill 885, failed last year.
The bill unanimously passed the Senate in March.
Then, it passed the House 171 to 4 but only after the addition of a separate mandate, requiring health insurance policies to cover the care of kids with autism.
But time ran out and that amended bill never made it back to the Senate floor for approval.
We also reached out to the four state representatives who voted against H.B. 885 last session.
They are Representatives Stephen Allison of Blairsville, Jeff Chapman of Brunswick, Carl Rogers of Gainesville and Ed Setzler from Acworth.
Rep. Allison declined any comment on his vote and the others didn't return our messages.
News Moderator: 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Medical marijuana bill to appear again
Author: Anita Oh
Contact: @anita_oh
Photo Credit: Sebastien Cotte
Website: Macon news, weather and traffic | Macon, GA - Warner Robins, GA | 13WMAZ.com
