Historic Marijuana Milestone: Georgia First In Nation Where Hundreds Of Drug Stores Will Sell Medical Cannabis

The Georgia Board of Pharmacy began accepting applications from nearly 120 pharmacies to provide medical marijuana products, making it the first state in the nation to allow the sale of low-dose cannabis at independent drug stores.

This expansion of medical marijuana sales to drug stores, known as the pharmacy rule, will vastly expand access to patients. There are only seven dispensaries in Georgia to serve people suffering from such illnesses as Parkinson’s disease, seizures, terminal cancers and PTSD.

The state's only two licensed cannabis producers, Botanical Sciences LLC and Trulieve Cannabis Corp. TRUL TCNNF, would provide the pharmacies with products. The two were the first in Georgia to get the green light earlier this year to serve registered medical cannabis patients.

“Pharmacists have been fielding questions from patients for years without ever having the ability to do anything about it,” said Gary Long, CEO of Botanical Sciences, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Finally, they have the ability not just to give people advice but provide them with the therapies they’ve been seeking.”

There are over 400 independent pharmacies in Georgia, and most of them are expected to participate in the program, with the exception of chains like CVS CVS and Walgreens WBA said Cecil Cordle, a member of the Georgia Board of Pharmacy.

This new move will put about 90 percent of Georgia’s population within a 30-minute drive of a pharmacy selling medical marijuana, noted the outlet.

Andrew Turnage, executive director for the Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission, said the pharmacy rule is “definitely big news.”

“It helps both our licensees and especially our patients,” he told the publication. “It will put access in virtually every county in the state.”

How Many Medical Marijuana Patients Are There In Georgia?

Great question, and it caused a mini-scandal last week.

The Georgia Department of Public Health recently disclosed it had miscounted and inflated the number of registered medical marijuana patients. Just 14,000 active patients and caregivers are currently signed up, far fewer than the 50,000 previously reported.

Photo courtesy of Kimzy Nanney on Unsplash