ATLANTA – A Lithonia lawmaker wants to explore financing options to help minority businesses have a fair shot at participating in the Georgia’s burgeoning medical marijuana industry.
Rep. Dar’Shun Kendrick, D-Lithonia, is sponsoring a resolution that would create a study committee of state lawmakers that would meet later this year to look at financing low-interest loans for medical cannabis dispensaries owned by minorities, women and military veterans.
If created, the study committee would also consider “emerging technologies” including blockchain systems – like electronic bitcoins – that aim to “reduce or eliminate the handling of cash” in transactions involving medical cannabis.
The House Special Rules Committee did not vote on the resolution at its hearing Tuesday.
Low amounts of oil containing the active chemical in marijuana, called tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, have been legal since 2015 in Georgia for use in patients diagnosed with certain conditions like terminal cancer, severe Alzheimer’s disease, autism and post-traumatic stress disorder.
But qualifying Georgians had no legal way to acquire THC oil until last year, when state lawmakers created a commission to oversee research institutes now allowed to produce cannabis and licenses for businesses to supply it to state-registered patients.
Last year’s House Bill 324, which created the Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission, also requires 20% of all licenses for cannabis-based businesses to go to minority, women and veteran-owned companies.
Kendrick told members of the committee on Tuesday that her resolution calls for finding “viable options” to meet that 20% threshold and make sure “those three groups are able to participate in the market” for medical marijuana.
Some lawmakers on the committee questioned what financing options could be available besides funding from the state, which would eat into an already tight budget as spending cuts are taking effect.
Kendrick pointed to Illinois’s recently enacted cannabis law that established a social equity program for disadvantaged business entities to qualify for low-interest loans.
She noted the study committee would explore options beyond traditional bank lending since the federal government still outlaws marijuana.
“If there are no viable ways, then obviously they would not come up with anything,” Kendrick said.
The study committee would have until December 2020 to produce recommendations if state lawmakers approve Kendrick’s resolution.