Federal law enforcement agents sent a warning letter dated Nov. 27 to pharmacies across Georgia, warning them that dispensing and selling cannabis oil is illegal under federal law. The letter arrived a month into Georgia’s medical cannabis program.

Last June, Georgia’s Board of Pharmacy released a set of regulations that enable the state’s independent pharmacies to dispense cannabis oil to eligible patients enrolled in a registry maintained by the state Department of Public Health. Beginning last Oct. 27, Georgia is the first state in the U.S. to permit independent pharmacies to sell low-THC oil. The move made it legal for over 400 independent pharmacies in Georgia to apply for the program and dispense cannabis oil. Over 100 have applied for the program so far.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) warned them that dispensing THC is illegal because it remains a Schedule I drug. 

“All DEA registrants, including DEA-registered pharmacies, are required to abide by all relevant federal laws and regulations,” reads a letter sent to a Georgia pharmacy by Matthew J. Strait, a DEA deputy assistant administrator in the agency’s Diversion Control Division. “A DEA-registered pharmacy may only dispense controlled substances in Schedules II-V of the Controlled Substances Act. Neither marijuana nor THC can lawfully be possessed, handled, or dispensed by any DEA-registered pharmacy.”

Keep in mind that things could change soon on the federal level: The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) sent an Aug. 19 letter, recommending to the DEA that cannabis be rescheduled and moved to the Schedule III drug category, making the substance legally accessible through a prescription at the federal level, which would make it legal in Georgia pharmacies. Last October, President Joe Biden requested that the HHS secretary and attorney general conduct a review of the classification of cannabis under federal law, and they did so.

“No one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana,” Biden said Oct. 6.

Since Georgia only allows low-THC and CBD cannabis products, it’s unlikely people seeking a high are going to go through its medical program.

Anti-Cannabis Reform Orgs Rejoice

Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) celebrated the blow to medical cannabis patients in a news release, posting the memo on their website. Opponents said Georgia’s program that supplies low-THC cannabis oil to patients “flies in the face of the position of every major medical association.”

NORML explains that Georgia’s low-THC medical cannabis law only allows for cannabis oils containing not more than 5% THC and an amount of CBD equal to or greater than the amount of THC. Today strains of cannabis in other states can exceed 30% THC. And then in Georgia, it has to be stored in a pharmaceutical container labeled by the manufacturer indicating the percentage of THC.

“The Georgia Pharmacy Board’s move to allow the sale of THC oils over the counter in drugstores is a disaster for public health because it implies an FDA endorsement of these dangerous, psychoactive products that can have very serious consequences for users, especially young people,” said SAM President Kevin Sabet. “The DEA’s repudiation of this policy is good news for consumers, and I applaud their affirming the federal government’s position that marijuana is not medicine. 

“As we’ve stated clearly throughout this debate, THC drugs are not medicine and federal law makes clear sales of marijuana and non-prescription THC drugs are illegal.The Board’s decision to allow pharmacies to dispense unregulated THC oils flies in the face of the position of every major medical association, Surgeons General appointed by both parties, the FDA, and the DEA. 

“Unlike with prescription medications, there is no legitimate dosing regimen or other quality control mechanism in place for these drugs. THC oils are often so high in potency that any level of consumption could be dangerous to physical and mental health. Pharmacies found to be violating federal law should be shut down immediately and face the harshest penalties under the law.”

Georgia’s own anti-cannabis reform organization, Georgians for Responsible Marijuana Policy, also responded. 

“I imagine, in the short term, the pharmacies who started dispensing medical marijuana would have to stop or risk a confrontation with the DEA,” Michael Mumper of Georgians for Responsible Marijuana Policy told 11Alive. “You know, there’s always been that tension between marijuana being illegal at the national level, while 38 states have approved it for medical reasons and 24 now for recreational reasons. There was always that tension about where is the federal government going to draw the line. Where Georgia went the furthest is that they were the first state in the country to have pharmacies dispense medical marijuana. And so I think they just pushed the DEA to a certain point.”

But Georgia’s pharmacies supply patients, often who have run out of options.

“We believe that this is an important thing,” Ira Katz of Little Five Points Pharmacy in Atlanta told 11Alive a month ago, “because who better than your independent pharmacist, who knows your history and knows your medical history, is able to best dispense medical marijuana?”

It’s unlikely Georgia pharmacies will be able to continue dispensing cannabis oil as-is.

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Anti-cannabis political organization Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) was represented on Fox News primetime to expose what they believe to be fake research promoted in greed by the cannabis industry. SAM is a political organization opposed to cannabis legalization and commercialization, specifically pushing for penalties for cannabis use.

Executive Vice President of SAM Luke Niforatos joined Laura Ingraham on The Ingraham Angle to discuss how “Big Cannabis” is funding UCLA, Harvard, and MIT studies on the efficacy of cannabis for medical purposes.

“The mainstreaming of pot has come at the same time the drug has increased exponentially in its potency, its THC levels,” warned Ingraham, linking it to “violent behavior.” Ingraham frequently explores the dangers of pot and blamed “pot psychosis” due to widespread legalization for the rise in mass shooting incidents. 

Niforatos then delivered a new mixed bag of reefer madness and hysteria: “Big marijuana is terrified right now, because there are now volumes of research telling us that this new super-charged marijuana that the industry is pumping out is causing psychosis, schizophrenia,” Niforatos said. “We’re seeing addiction rates go up. They’re targeting our kids. All kinds of car crashes on the roads! So all of this is coming out of the research.”

“So what do they do?” Niforatos said, referring to the cannabis industry. “They go to their big brother tobacco, who—by the way is their biggest investor—and they start pumping out fake, bogus research. I’m telling you right now: One of the people that funded the millions of dollars for UCLA’s research on marijuana—that company was called ‘Nugs.’ It’s not run by Sir. Isaac Newton, right?”

Independent Research

Niforatos was referring to an investigative piece by the Los Angeles Times exploring the funding behind cannabis research. Specifically, UCLA researchers were confronted with claims about their lab research being truly independent.

Niforatos went on to describe how the people behind cannabis companies should not be taken seriously.

“These are the canna-bros running these companies, and they’re not trying to advance scientific research, they’re paying for publicity and misinformation, which is exactly what Big Tobacco did, they killed millions of Americans to make a buck, and that’s exactly what marijuana wants to do along with their Big Tobacco investors,” he said.

SAM was founded in reaction to legalization efforts in Colorado and Washington by former Congressman Patrick Kennedy, who supported medical but not recreational cannabis, as well as former White House drug policy adviser Kevin Sabet, David Frum, and others.

However, SAM has been criticized for cherry-picking negative stats from studies about pot.

But Who’s Behind SAM?

In 2016, Vice explored in detail who exactly is bankrolling SAM’s agenda to fight cannabis legalization. Among the list of donors, they found a casino owner, a former U.S. ambassador, cops, prison guards, alcohol merchants, and a pharma company that sells fentanyl.

A $500,000 donation from Insys Therapeutics matched a donation from Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy for the top donors. Insys is a pharmaceutical company known for selling the painkiller fentanyl in the form of a sublingual spray. 

A Washington Post article explored how Insys Therapeutics spent half a million trying to keep pot illegal and “just got DEA approval for synthetic marijuana.” Ironically, a federal jury in 2019 found Insys Therapeutics Founder John Kapoor guilty of running a widespread scheme to bribe doctors nationwide to speak about the company’s fentanyl spray, Subsys.

In 2019, the New York chapter of Smart Approaches to Marijuana was forced to disclose its donors, just ahead of legalization rolling out in the state. The state Joint Commission on Public Ethics denied a request from the organization to keep its donors private. 

Dismissing medical studies about cannabis, with the help from SAM, is a slippery slope.

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