Agriculture and Affairs meeting, image by: Alexander Eller

Agriculture and Affairs meeting

The topic of the Agriculture and Affairs meeting that I sat in on was over Cannabanoid regulations and what can be done for Georgia to fall in line with incoming Federal regulations. One of the bills up being spoken about was Senate Bill 33, specifically the parts intended to target synthetic cannabanoid production. Senator Kirkpatrick and her bill, LC443468s, are intended to “protect the public from unregulated cannabanoids that are being sold in retail outlets without the same safeguards that we have in place for Delta nine.” She went on to list a few other synthetic cannabanoids, and talked about why it did not get voted on last session. She also talks about why this change is occuring, in that the federal regulations have changed and now that Georgia has it’s own regulations, they need to fall in line with the federal regulations before it becomes an issue. She speaks on several different pain points of the current standing bill, and how her proposed changes would follow federal regulations for when the enforcement of the bill occurs. I sat in on this bill and started to notice some of the flaws in it’s verbiage which several of the representatives picked apart in this video.

Talking to Rep. Inga Willis, image by: Alexander Eller

Representative Willis, one of those on the board at this meeting, who showed her skepticism for the bill, had several questions for Senator Kirkpatrick. She noted receiving numerous emails and communications from her constituents about this bill and the impact it may have, and sought to alleviate some of those concerns via her lines of questioning. The second bill produced by Senator Elena Catherine Parent, which definitely was more well received by the committee, was a little more specific. The bill was actually amended during this meeting, and later agreed upon and supported by several of the representatives. It was also later passed within this meeting due to its efforts to push back the effective date, terminology changes, and support of local businesses. I spoke to Representative Inga Willis after the meeting, in which she told me that she did not support the Senator’s bill, however she did support the second bill by Senator Catherine, as her goals were to support the businesses as they support the state itself.