Trulieve Georgia has opened one of two new medical cannabis dispensaries in Macon.
ATLANTA – When the state agency overseeing Georgia’s medical cannabis program issued the first dispensary licenses late last month, it gave the two licensees four months to get them up and running.
Trulieve Georgia and Botanical Sciences LLC won’t need nearly that long. Trulieve opened dispensaries in Marietta and Macon the very next day after being awarded their licenses, while Botanical Sciences plans to open two more late next month or in early July.
“These licensees made a sprint,” said Andrew Turnage, executive director of the Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission. “It’s an amazing testament.”
The speed with which the two companies are opening dispensaries is in sharp contrast to the frustratingly slow pace the medical cannabis program took to reach this point.
The General Assembly first legalized possession of low-THC cannabis oil to treat a wide range of diseases back in 2015 but failed to provide patients a legal way to obtain the drug. Adult patients and parents of ailing children have been forced for years to travel out of state to get cannabis oil or buy it illegally in Georgia.
It wasn’t until 2019 that the legislature passed a bill setting up a licensing process for companies to grow marijuana indoors under close supervision, convert the leafy crop to cannabis oil, and sell the product to patients with a doctor’s prescription who signed up for a registry run by the Georgia Department of Public Health.
Currently, the registry numbers about 27.000 patients. But it is expected to grow quickly now that the first dispensaries are open. Turnage said he expects the list to hit 100,000 patients within the next year.
“A lot of people have been holding back to make sure this was actually going to happen,” he said. “A lot have been afraid up to this point because it was unlawful. They don’t want to run the risk of crossing state lines.”
Trulieve and Botanical Sciences helped speed up the process by starting to build manufacturing plants in Adel and Glennville, respectively, last fall when the commission granted them Class 1 manufacturing licenses. Under the 2019 law, Class 1 licensees are authorized to grow marijuana in up to 100,000 square feet of indoor space.
Botanical Sciences already has had two harvests at the Glennville site, said Gary Long, the company’s CEO. He said the company has 25 employees in Glennville and expects to increase that to as many as 100 within six months. Each dispensary will hire 12 to 15 employees, Long said.
Trulieve Georgia President Lisa Pinkney said the Adel plant has fewer than 50 workers but will bring on more as demand for the product increases. Each of Trulieve’s two dispensaries has seven to 10 employees, she said.
Both companies are using what’s known as a vertically integrated business model, as the 2019 law requires.
Long said that “seed-to-sale” model makes Botanical Sciences responsible for the entire process, from planting and harvesting the seeds to producing cannabis oil and selling the product.
“Fully integrated licenses are very good not only for ourselves but the patients because we have control over the process,” he said.
While the law prohibits the companies from advertising or marketing cannabis oil, both are planning to educate patients and physicians about the program.
Pinkney said Trulieve already has held three virtual training sessions for physicians.
“No question is a dumb question,” she said. “This is new.”
Long said educating patients will require dispelling misperceptions.
“This is not a smoke shop,” he said. “Our dispensaries are going to be more like medical facilities.”
Long said demonstrating to the commission the serious medical nature of the business played an important role in winning manufacturing and dispensing licenses.
“We’re physician founded,” he said. “The vision is to serve patients in a medical way.”
Pinkney said Trulieve’s diverse management team helped it win licenses because the state was looking for diversity. She is African American, and pro football Hall of Famer Champ Bailey, who also is Black, is part of ownership.
“Trulieve brought together a very diverse team that has experience,” Pinkney said.
Both companies initially plan to locate their dispensaries in areas with large populations and, thus, a large number of eligible patients.
Besides the Macon and Marietta dispensaries, Trulieve plans to open dispensaries in Newnan, Pooler, and Columbus this summer. Botanical Sciences plans to open in Pooler and Marietta.
One feature of the 2019 law that is unique to Georgia is that it also will allow independent pharmacies across Georgia to dispense cannabis oil to patients.
“That may help in the outlier parts of Georgia where we can’t get our dispensaries,” Pinkney said.
While it’s full steam ahead for the two Class 1 licensees, four other companies tentatively awarded Class 2 licenses by the commission in 2021 are being delayed by lawsuits filed by losing bidders challenging the selection process as flawed. Class 2 licensees will be allowed to grow marijuana in up to 50,000 square feet of indoor space.
Turnage said he expects the case to be heard in Fulton County Superior Court this fall.
“Litigation is the only barrier to issuing these licenses,” he said. “We believe it’s time to move forward.”
ATLANTA – A major textile mill in Northwest Georgia has agreed to permanently stop using a group of chemicals that provide protective coatings for its products.
Mount Vernon Mills has been discharging per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS) to the city of Trion’s wastewater treatment plant. Because the plant cannot remove the chemicals, they were flowing into the Chattooga River.
The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), representing the environmental group Coosa River Basin Initiative, sued the mill and the city for violating both the Clean Water Act and federal laws prohibiting PFAS pollution.
The three parties entered into a proposed consent agreement this week to permanently end the use of PFAS at the mill by the end of this year. While the agreement awaits federal court approval, Mount Vernon has agreed to divert its internal waste for offsite treatment rather than send it through the city’s treatment plant.
“This agreement serves as a model for how Georgia’s textile industry can work alongside communities to ensure safer water for everyone,” said Chris Bowers, a senior attorney with the SELC.
“Ending use of PFAS in textile production at this facility is an important step to finally dealing with ongoing contamination in our region and should serve as an example to others that there are alternatives to using these chemicals in manufacturing in the first place,” added Jesse Demonbreun-Chapman, the Coosa River Basin Initiative’s executive director.
PFAS are a class of synthetic chemicals that are known to be toxic and associated with serious health impacts. Growing research links PFAS exposure to diseases including liver and testicular cancer, liver disease, and thyroid disease.
ATLANTA – The Georgia Professional Standards Commission voted unanimously Thursday to remove the word “diversity” from the state’s educator preparation rules despite an outpouring of opposition.
The request to delete diversity and several other words came from the University System of Georgia, which was seeking to clarify expectations for the system’s educator preparation programs, commission Chairman Brian Sirmans said. The commission will consider deleting the words “equity” and “inclusion” at a meeting next month.
“We were told these words were leading to difficulty in determining program standards,” Sirmans said.
But a coalition of Georgia students, educators, and parents held a news conference after Thursday’s vote to criticize the decision as a politically motivated step that will hurt teacher preparation and worsen the state’s teacher shortage.t
“This feels very similar to the divisive concept law,” said Tracey Nance, a former elementary school teacher who was Georgia Teacher of the Year for two years running, referring to legislation the Republican-controlled General Assembly passed last year restricting how racism can be taught in Georgia schools. “It’s going to have a very chilling effect.”
“Diversity is a core element of what it means to be a good teacher,” added Yacine Kout, an assistant professor of education at the University of North Georgia. “Removing that aspect of teacher education does not serve our future teachers.”
Kout went on to predict that Thursday’s vote will contribute to Georgia’s shortage of teachers because it will discourage college students from pursuing education as a major.
Several board members acknowledged receiving a deluge of emails opposing the proposal to amend the educator preparation rules by deleting the words.
Penney McRoy, director of the commission’s educator preparation division, said the words are being deleted because they have taken on “unintentional meanings in our culture.”
McRoy said opponents to the rules changes appear to be misinformed.
“My guess is there is a misperception that changing the wording is changing the intent. That is not the case,” she told commission members. “Our intent continues to be that we are well equipped to meet the needs of each and every child.”
Middle school social studies teacher Ogechi Oparah disagreed.
“Words matter,” she said during Thursday’s Georgia Coalition for Education Justice news conference. “They’re a reflection of intent.”
Sirmans said the amended rule deleting diversity will take effect June 15.
ATLANTA – The state Board of Education adopted a new set of “Georgia-grown” standards for English/language arts (ELA) instruction in public schools Thursday, the last step in abandoning the federal standards known as Common Core.
As was the case with new math standards the board adopted in August 2021, the ELA standards were driven by teachers with input from educational leaders, parents, students, business and industry leaders, and community members.
“These updated and improved standards – created to prioritize learners with the input of parents and educators – will give students a strong foundation for both literacy and success,” Gov. Brian Kemp said after Thursday’s vote.
“Georgia’s new ELA standards eliminate the final remnants of Common Core in Georgia, fulfilling Governor Kemp’s and my commitment to Georgia-owned and Georgia-grown, clear, and developmentally appropriate standards for Georgia students,” added State School Superintendent Richard Woods, who recommended the new standards to the board.
“Knowing that early literacy is essential to all future learning, the standards place a strong emphasis on the fundamentals in the early grades.”
The General Assembly put an emphasis on reading during this year’s legislative session, passing two literacy bills aimed in part at an approach called the “science of reading.” About 36% of Georgia third graders read below grade level, according to the state’s 2022 Milestones test results.
Teachers will receive training on the new ELA standards during the next two school years. New resources will be developed, assessments will be aligned to the updated standards, and communication will be provided to parents to ensure a smooth transition
ATLANTA – Lawyers representing environmental groups and manufacturers asked the state Public Service Commission’s (PSC) Energy Committee Thursday to reject an agreement letting Georgia Power recover 100% of higher fuel costs incurred during the last two years from customers.
The PSC’s Public Interest Advocacy staff and the Atlanta-based utility agreed last month on a plan that would allow Georgia Power to recover $2.1 billion in higher fuel costs primarily due to an increase in natural gas prices. That would raise the average residential customer’s bill by $15.90 a month.
The agreement’s opponents did not challenge Georgia Power’s right to recover the higher fuel costs, which is permitted under state law as a pass-through expense. The utility does not earn any profit from fuel-cost recovery.
Instead, they objected to letting Georgia Power collect the full cost recovery from customers at a time many are hard pressed to pay their electric bills without at least some sharing of the costs with shareholders.
Last year, nearly 10% of the utility’s residential customer accounts were disconnected for nonpayment, said Jennifer Whitfield, a lawyer representing Georgia Interfaith Power and Light.
She said state law requires the commission to approve electric rate hikes only if they are “just and reasonable.”
“There’s nothing just and reasonable about service people can’t afford,” Whitfield said.
Bryan Jacob, representing the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and the Sierra Club, said not requiring Georgia Power to have some “skin in the game” leaves the utility with no motivation to control fuel costs.
“The decision-making party bears no risk for the decisions they’re making,” he said.
Jacob suggested assigning even a 3% to 5% share of the costs would be enough to ensure Georgia Power acts responsibly in deciding what mix of fuels to use in generating electricity.
Opponents also asked that Georgia Power be required to extend the fuel-cost recovery period from the 36 months stipulated in the agreement to 60 months to spread out the costs.
“It does have to be paid,” said Clay Jones, a lawyer representing the Georgia Association of Manufacturers. “[But] extending it another year or two years would be a benefit.”
But Steve Hewitson, a lawyer for Georgia Power, said extending the recovery period past 36 months would drive up interest costs, raising the overall expense. He also noted that Georgia Power reduced its cost-recovery proposal by about $1 billion in the agreement compared to the request the company filed in February, lowering the size of the rate increase by about 30%.
Preston Thomas, representing the commission’s Public Interest Advocacy staff, defended the proposed agreement from arguments that it fails the ‘just and reasonable’ test.
” ‘Just and reasonable’ is balancing both customer and utility interests, not the lowest possible rate,” he said.
The commission is scheduled to vote on the fuel-costs recovery agreement next week.
