By: Paige Minshew

Photo by: Paige Minshew

On March 24th of this year, I did something that I never thought I would do, which was to drive myself down from Kennesaw and go into the state capitol building. With my group of classmates, we went into several committee meetings, but the one that stood out to me the most was the agricultural meeting that went over SB 33, which is titled officially as the “Georgia Hemp Farming Act.” Stakeholder Yolanda Vance, who works for Georgia Medical Cannabis Society (GMCS), noted to us that legislation that is passed to control “hemp” protests is hard to combat, as the main goal of GMCS is to protect individual Georgian rights to medical CBD and other products that will be officially regulated with the passing of SB 33 as it regulates THC and other synthetics within certain drugs sold containing hemp. Vance also believes the knowledge of different types of hemp products is vital to making and passing laws so the public and even lawmakers can be educated about the effects of natural and even synthetic materials on smokeable/edible products.

Photo by: Paige Minshew

Beforehand, Kirkpatrick (R-32) presented her rendition of the hemp law, ALC 44, which included 14 pages of legislation and interpretation of a state and federal limitation of THC products. This proceeded to be shot down by many democratic leaders within the committee room as Igna Willis (D-55) argued that Kirkpatrick’s ALC would be detrimental to families across the state who grow all natural products and the question regarding both pieces of legislation was whether it fully limits regarding any hemp-related product. This piqued my interest as the tension came from the place of knowing that thousands of Georgians would be affected by the changes that were made in the room I was in. With this trip, I realized how much hangs in the balance in just one afternoon, and it allows us to question and wonder how the things we see in person will change our state as a whole.