Editorial Abstract: Views from throughout Georgia | editorial

Brunswick News: State legislators need to address barriers to medicinal THC distribution

Loving parents will do just about anything to ease a child’s suffering. They will do even more to save a sick son or daughter from the cold hands of death.

Anyone who has children knows that. Parents make sacrifices. It cannot be helped. It’s love and more. The propensity to protect and nurture young family members is encoded in their genetic makeup. In this way, nature ensures the survival of a species, even among lower animals.

For this reason, it came as a shock years ago to find so much opposition from state legislatures to allow the sale and distribution of THC to families of children with health conditions to relieve their crushing pain or symptoms, or in extreme cases, their lives to extend . But in 2019, after much argument and debate, lawmakers finally relented. They passed a measure to make this possible.

THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol) is found in cannabis and is said to be effective for many medicinal purposes. It is said to control epileptic and other seizures. It’s used in the UK in patients with multiple sclerosis to relieve a range of horrifying symptoms associated with the debilitating disease.

Today, three years later, parents in Georgia who need it to control or manage their sons and daughters’ debilitating seizures are still forced to source THC illegally. It remains lawfully unreachable in this state.

The reason for the delay — and possibly longer unless the issue is addressed at the General Assembly — is because of the individuals or companies holding one of six licenses available in Georgia to grow marijuana, produce THC, and provide for it Individuals who applied for the qualification but did not receive it. Those who didn’t get a contract are delaying progress by protesting the selection process used to select the state’s suppliers. There’s even a pending lawsuit.

No one wants to break the law willingly, but count on a caring mother or father to do just that when it means bringing relief to a child. And you are. You can find sources of THC mostly out of state.

The legislature must find a solution to this mess. There are families here, in Braunschweig and on the Golden Isles who depend on it for their children or an elderly loved one.

How a legislator can in good conscience sit back and do nothing while children and adults are suffering needlessly is beyond comprehension, especially that of a parent seeking comfort for a child who would benefit from the drug.

Valdosta Daily Times: Not everyone needs a gun

Allowing someone to carry a gun in public – without a permit – is a bad and dangerous idea.

But that is exactly what several Georgian lawmakers want to do.

And it has the full support of the governor.

Gun permits are designed to restrict guns owned by convicted criminals, domestic abusers and people with mental health problems.

The Judiciary Committee this week passed the ill-advised measure in the affirmative and will most likely get a vote.

The Republican-led bill appears to be on a fast track, and we encourage lawmakers to slow down and think.

Lobby groups like the National Association for Gun Rights and the National Rifle Association should not use their money and connections to improperly influence Georgia legislators. Instead of listening to lobbyists, our senators and representatives should listen to mothers and fathers who have lost sons and daughters to gun violence, shopkeepers who have been robbed at gunpoint, or the families of police officers who have been gunned down when they responded to calls about domestic violence.

Despite the rhetoric, this is not a Second Amendment issue. It is a matter of common sense and safety for the people of Georgia.

Requiring gun permits interferes with the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding people to own and carry a gun, any more than requiring a driver’s license interferes with the ability to own and drive an automobile. None of us want people who shouldn’t be driving on our roads to endanger everyone around them.

Certainly no sane person wants convicted felons or people with dangerous mental illnesses walking around with a gun on their hip or hidden in their jacket.

Gun carrying permits aren’t overly restrictive and just make sense.

The vast majority of Americans support gun legislation with common sense.

These lawmakers support an extreme, libertarian-leaning base at a time when gun violence is on the rise.

Strong supporters of the Second Amendment are fond of saying that law-abiding men and women should be able to own and carry any firearm and defend themselves. Why, then, are these legislators keen to do whatever they can to help non-law-abiding people own and carry the guns they want?

Romanticizing about a return to the wild, wild west is one thing, but lunchtime gunfights on our city streets, the probable reality, is quite another.

Laws and procedures surrounding gun-carrying are far from perfect, and everyone knows that criminals often ignore the law and find ways to get the guns they want, but why make it even easier for them?

Why should we remove all the guard rails we have? Why make our streets and neighborhoods more dangerous?

April Ross of the Georgia Commission on Family Violence told a 2018 Justice Department study that found domestic violence incidents represented the highest number of fatal emergency calls, accounting for 29% of deaths on duty between 2010 and 2016 occurred. and 100% of those deaths were from firearms.

A gun-carrying license is currently required in Georgia to carry a concealed firearm. To get one, you must be at least 21 years old, unless you are in the military; must have no criminal convictions; must not have been to a psychiatric hospital or drug/alcohol treatment center in the past five years; or were not admitted to a psychiatric hospital against his will.

The people of Georgia who will benefit most from this law are criminals and people who can pose a danger to themselves and others.

This law, SB 319, is bad for families, bad for business, bad for law enforcement, and bad for Georgia.

We encourage our legislative delegation to vote no.