HB342: HB342 Crimes and offenses; access to medical cannabis; repeal certain advertising restrictions on licensees

Georgia law regulating access to medical cannabis (O.C.G.A. § 16-12-215) currently bars licensed low THC oil producers and dispensers from advertising or marketing their products to registered patients or the public. This bill, as revised by a House committee substitute, keeps that general advertising ban in place but adds a new exception: licensees would be allowed to provide information about their low THC oil and products directly to physicians. That physician outreach would not be unrestricted. The bill directs the state's medical cannabis commission to write rules and regulations governing how licensees communicate with physicians, requiring that any marketing or advertising avoid medical claims unsupported by reliable scientific evidence and not otherwise harm the public. The bill also repeals any other state laws that conflict with these changes but leaves the existing location restrictions on where cultivation, processing, and dispensing facilities can operate near schools, early education programs, and churches unchanged.

• Keeps in place the existing ban on licensees advertising or marketing low THC oil and products directly to registered patients and the public.
• Creates a new exception allowing licensees to share product information directly with physicians.
• Requires the commission overseeing medical cannabis to write rules governing that physician-directed marketing or advertising.
• Requires those commission rules to block unsupported medical claims and prohibit advertising that is otherwise harmful to the public.
• Repeals any other state laws that conflict with these changes.

Licensed medical cannabis producers, processors, and dispensers in Georgia; physicians who may now receive product information directly from licensees; registered patients who use low THC oil; and the state commission or State Board of Pharmacy responsible for writing the new advertising rules.

Georgia cannabis licensees would gain a new, regulated channel to inform doctors about their products, which could shape what physicians recommend to patients, while the broader public-facing advertising ban stays intact, so patients and the general public would not see new cannabis ads as a result of this bill.

• Section 1 revises O.C.G.A. § 16-12-215(b)(1) to maintain the ban on licensees advertising or marketing low THC oil or products to registered patients or the public.
• Section 1 adds a proviso letting licensees provide product information directly to physicians, subject to commission rules.
• New paragraph (b)(2) requires the commission to promulgate rules ensuring physician-directed marketing avoids scientifically unsupported medical claims and is not otherwise harmful to the public.
• The bill leaves unchanged the existing location restrictions in subsection (a) keeping cultivation and dispensing facilities a set distance from schools, early education programs, and churches.
• Section 2 repeals any other laws in conflict with the Act.

1. 2025-04-04House Withdrawn, Recommitted (House)
2. 2025-03-04House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute (House)
3. 2025-02-12House Second Readers (House)
4. 2025-02-11House First Readers (House)
5. 2025-02-10House Hopper (House)

• Mitchell Horner (R, HD-003)Primary sponsor
• Jason Ridley (R, HD-006)
• Jordan Ridley (R, HD-022)
• Derrick McCollum (R, HD-030)
• Eric Bell (D, HD-075)

• medical cannabis
• low THC oil
• advertising regulations
• cannabis licensing