When the 2014 General Assembly session began 10 short weeks ago, the odds of a medical cannabis bill passing this year would have been longer than having a perfect March Madness bracket in Vegas, because no one was crazy enough to take that bet. State Rep. Allen Peake with Hunter Klepinger.

But by the last day of the legislative session, the issue of legalizing cannabidiol oil in Georgia to help children with seizure disorders had picked up such momentum and popularity that its passage seemed almost a certainty.

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Finally, Georgia is No. 1. We have what must be the most NRA-friendly gun laws in the country. Combine this with a statutory rejection of the Affordable Care Act; requiring drug testing for SNAP recipients; and refusal to allow medical marijuana to comfort ill children, and our Legislature has really distinguished itself. But don't worry.

Anyone seeing one of our Confederate license tags will understand that they have experienced time travel and landed squarely in the middle of the 19th century. Or they might figure this out from the condition of our crumbling roads and bridges, a consequence of the nation's lowest taxes. Way to go, Georgia.

LLOYD E. FLEMING, DULUTH

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I am one of the many parents pushing for medical cannabis here in Georgia for our children with seizure disorders. Our 8-year-old daughter, Alaina, suffers from Dravet Syndrome, a severe form of epilepsy.

We fought to educate the legislators and the public that this is indeed life-saving medicine, without the side effects of the many FDA-approved drugs our children are forced to take today. We never dreamed that we would succeed in that fight so quickly, and get a bill introduced this session, only to have it come crashing down due to political games played with our sick children.

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During its journey through the General Assembly, a bill that would require drug testing for some applicants for food stamps and welfare generated controversy and drew fierce opposition from Democrats.

Ultimately, though, House Bill 772 was approved on the final day of the legislative session, and has been sent to Gov. Nathan Deal for his signature.

It would require people applying for this government assistance to be tested if they raise "reasonable suspicion'' of illegal drug use.

A recent email from a federal official, however, shows that at least the food stamp portion of the bill may run into problems.

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In response to "Bill tying food stamps to drug tests goes to Deal" (News, March 21), one would wish Georgia legislators might one day have to rely on food stamps to feed their families. Fortunes come and go. I say to the legislators: Get closer to the people who may not have had the same advantages that you've had, and perhaps you will better understand the pride-smashing necessity of asking the state to help you pay for groceries. Adding drug tests as a requirement for receiving food stamps would violate the very freedoms this country stands for. Hopefully, Gov. Nathan Deal will not sign. Aren't there matters of education and health care to be studied and considered? It would seem the representatives in the General Assembly do not have enough real work to do.

ELLEN HUNTER ULKEN, PEACHTREE CITY

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I was struck by the photo of state Rep. Rick Jasperse high-fiving another legislator subsequent to the passage of his gun bill on the last day of the session. The bill allows guns in churches. On his website, Jasperse describes himself as a Christian, like many in the General Assembly.

I'm wondering if such elation was showed when bills were defeated allowing the use of medical marijuana for Georgia's sick children and requiring insurance companies to cover children with autism. Or when a bill was passed requiring drug testing for SNAP applicants, the poorest among us.

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LaMarcus Wilkerson's story (Lesser of 3 evils, March 13, 2014) got an arrow-splitting bull's eye exposing cannabis (marijuana) prohibition. Another reason to end cannabis prohibition that doesn't get mentioned is that prohibition increases hard-drug addiction rates.

Government claims heroin is no worse than cannabis and methamphetamine and that cocaine is less harmful by insisting cannabis is a Schedule I substance alongside heroin, while methamphetamine and cocaine are only Schedule II substances.

How many citizens tried cannabis and realized it is not nearly as dangerous as claimed and believed other substances must not be either, only to find themselves addicted to hard drugs? Can the message from cannabis prohibitionists be any worse for vulnerable citizens?

Truthfully,

Stan White

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GEORGIANS love to kick Alabama around as a model of backward thinking, and not always good-naturedly either. They had best change their tone, at least regarding matters involving simple human concern for others.

Perhaps it was to avoid embarrassment ( for Georgia), but it is somewhat amazing that little to no mention was made, either during the noisy medical marijuana debate in the recent General Assembly session or after the defeat of this measure to help seizure-plagued children wheeled before TV cameras almost daily during the argument, that the Alabama legislature had just done this very thing - the same week.

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Written in response to the March 22 column by Ben Boychuk and Joel Mathis:

Dear Editor of The Calhoun Times, sane or moral argument to continue cannabis prohibition (marijuana) doesn't exist (Weed Legalization Universal? Mar. 22, 2014). Another important reason to end cannabis prohibition that doesn't get is because it increases hard drug addiction rates. It puts citizen who choose to use the relatively safe plant into contact with people who often also sell hard drugs.

Further, government claims heroin is no worse than cannabis and methamphetamine and cocaine is less harmful by insisting cannabis is a Schedule I substance alongside heroin, while methamphetamine and cocaine are only Schedule II substances. How many citizens tried cannabis and realized it is not nearly as dangerous as it claimed and believed other substances must not be either only to find themselves addicted to hard drugs? Can the message from cannabis prohibitionists be any worse for vulnerable citizens?

Truthfully,

Stan White

Dillon, Colorado

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Written in response to the March 22 column by Ben Boychuk and Joel Mathis:

Dear Editor, the people of Colorado and Washington state are way ahead of the politicians in Washington, D.C. The days when Congress can get away with confusing the drug war's tremendous collateral damage with a comparatively harmless plant are coming to an end. If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to subsidize violent drug cartels, prohibition is a grand success. The drug war distorts supply and demand dynamics so that big money grows on little trees. If the goal is to deter use, marijuana prohibition is a catastrophic failure. The U.S. has almost double the rate of marijuana use as the Netherlands where marijuana is legal.

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Athens-Clarke County Mayor Nancy Denson, who made headlines earlier this week by saying she supported decriminalization of possession and use of small quantities of marijuana, has issued a statement to clarify her position.

During a Wednesday debate with local activist Tim Denson - no relation - who is challenging Mayor Denson in the upcoming May 20 nonpartisan mayoral election, the mayor revealed publicly for the first time her stance on decriminalization of marijuana, noting that possession of small quantities for personal shouldn't create a criminal record that follows someone for the rest of their life.

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Failure of medical marijuana bill leaves Hall mother sad, determined

Amendment derails cannabis oil plan despite both houses' backing

In the expiring moments of the 2014 legislative session Thursday, Georgia lawmakers gleefully threw shredded paper in the air, a tradition signifying the end of business.

In the upper gallery of the House, however, there was a much different show of raw emotion.

Oakwood mother Sarah Caruso was one of several Georgia parents distraught after a law that would have allowed access to medical marijuana failed to be brought for a House vote.

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Local family suffers after medical marijuana caught in 'political crossfire'

Five-month-old Kason Jiles of Lithia Springs has a medical file more than 600 pages thick and takes seven medications for a seizure disorder.

Kason's dad Jonathan watched the final hours of the Georgia Legislature on Thursday night on his computer, frustrated that a bill that could have helped his son and had so much support fell just short.

House Bill 885, which would have legalized cannabis oil, a nonsmokable derivative of marijuana, had overwhelming support in the House and Senate. But in the Legislature's final days, Sen. Renee Untermann (R-Buford) tried to attach a provision that would have expanded autism coverage. Untermann's attachment didn't fly in the House.

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Public health advocates say addressing the fear of legal repercussions after dialing 911 will save overdose victims in a medical crisis after Georgia's "medical amnesty" bill passed the legislature Tuesday.

"There was a lot of emotion in this bill because there's a lot of people who have been and are going to be affected by this situation," said Jeremy Sharp, a student at the University of North Georgia and founder of UNG's chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy.

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First, 20 states and the District of Columbia passed laws legalizing marijuana for medical use. Then in 2012, voters in Washington state and Colorado approved measures legalizing the sale and possession of marijuana for non-medical use, with state oversight. Now at least a half-dozen states from Alaska to Maine are considering following suit.

Marijuana still remains a federally controlled substance, but Attorney General Eric Holder in January said the U.S. Justice Department would soon issue regulations to let state sanctioned marijuana businesses have access to banking and credit.

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The effort to legalize medical marijuana in Georgia appears dead for the year.

Rep. Allen Peake, R-Macon, who championed the idea after lawmakers had already convened for the year and delivered it to the brink of final passage, acknowledged the end late Thursday of the legislative session's final day.

His bill fell victim to time and the typical political webs that ensnare well-meaning legislation every year.

Peake looked for any opportunity to get the bill passed. His last-ditch effort was to attach it to Senate Bill 291, which created a new agency for adult and aging services.

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ATLANTA (AP) - With just hours remaining in Georgia's 2014 legislative session, sick patients and their caregivers were waiting to see if state lawmakers could compromise to create a program authorizing the medical use of a marijuana derivative. The Associated Press Georgia Rep. Sam Teasley, R-Marietta, looks over the Georgia State Capitol during a dinner break during the last day of the legislative session Thursday in Atlanta.

By law, the General Assembly meets just 40 working days annually. Any legislation not approved by midnight Thursday automatically has failed for the year.

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ATLANTA -- As the clock ticked through the final hours of the annual state legislative session, state Rep. Allen Peake launched a last-minute but ultimately unsuccessful plan to pass his medical marijuana bill.

"For these families, their reality is ... a child who is going to have one hundred seizures tomorrow," said Peake, R-Macon, author of House Bill 885, which would have decriminalized possession of a liquid medicine derived from cannabis that's used to treat pediatric seizures.

With just more than two hours remaining in this year's session, Peake had pinned his hopes on a maneuver that unhitched his bill from an unrelated issue of requiring insurance companies to cover pediatric autism treatment.

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Macon Lawmaker Made Last-Ditch Appeal to Senate.

The effort to legalize medical marijuana in Georgia is dead for the year.

Rep. Allen Peake, R-Macon, who championed the idea after lawmakers had already convened for the year and delivered it to the brink of final passage, acknowledged the end late Thursday, the legislative session's final day.

His bill fell victim to time and the typical political webs that ensnare well-meaning legislation every year. House Bill 885 was designed to allow Georgia families use of cannabis oil to treat certain seizure disorders in both children and adults, afflictions that can cause hundreds of seizures a day and often lead to death. The oil is harvested from the marijuana plant but does not create the high that recreational use of marijuana produces.

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A new bill that would grant amnesty from certain drug charges for those who seek help in the event of a drug overdose is now awaiting Governor Nathan Deal's signature to be officially passed into law.

The bill passed the Georgia House of Representatives again last night after the Senate approved it with a few amendments. The House approved the amendments and now the bill sits on Governor Deal's desk, awaiting it's passage into law.

Tanya Smith, a Holly Springs Georgia police lieutenant and mother, said she has been an advocate for the bill ever since her 20-year-old daughter overdosed on heroin.

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