HB 885 would have brought lifesaving medical marijuana derivatives to suffering Georgians and would have set the course for sensible medical access but failed to pass the Senate floor despite overwhelming support for the original bill due to an addendum attached by Sen. Renee Unterman.

Dear Senator Unterman,

In an interview conducted after a personal tragedy in your life you said, “when you suffer, you realize what it’s like to suffer.” You spoke of a newfound compassion felt for all your constituents, particularly those in constant pain that, like your son, could not gain access to the treatment they needed. It is understandable and admirable, though far from selfless, that you would then champion legislation that would provide more comprehensive care for autistic children.

However, your maneuver last March in attaching elements of your own agenda (albeit a worthwhile one) to HB 885 -- a bill that would have helped bring immediate relief to hundreds of children suffering from seizures and would have paved the way for a sensible medical marijuana program here in Georgia -- seems to serve as counter to your capacity for empathy and, frankly, it bothers me. It bothers me as a teacher and future parent, having witnessed chronic seizures in one of my students. It bothers me as a Georgia citizen, that a bill with near-unanimous support can be sabotaged by one pair of hands. It bothers me as a person, living with paralysis and severe nerve pain brought on by a spinal injury and not wanting to go back to heavy narcotic pain pills or be forced to relocate. But perhaps mostly, this bothers me as a basic human being, since, as is the case with all of humankind, I carry with me an innate sense of just and unjust.

I hope, for your sake, that your own innate sense of justness has been nagging at your psyche; if it is not, I can only assume then that the Orwellian world of political language in which you live has quelled your most basic human instinct. In such event, please heed the advice of Dr. Martin Luther King -- “Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.” I understand you may have well have been wanting to uplift the human personality of those who suffer from autism, but why do that and risk, if not outright doom, children suffering from chronic seizures to degradation?

I regret to say that you have helped usher in yet another year of an outdated and non-scientific stance on medical marijuana, robbing lifesaving CBD oil from the mouths of thousands of children and perpetuated a system that makes criminals out of thoughtful and, so long as they remain unincarcerated, productive individuals that opt not to observe Georgia’s egregiously unjust laws prohibiting medical access to marijuana.

Lastly, it is of further injury that amidst your calculations and self-aggrandizement (as admirable your cause and you, as a loyal public servant, may be) that you attempt to deflect the blame onto the system, saying, “this building is nothing but politics.” That building, before your game of legislative chicken, was about to host monumental change; before that maneuver, that building was way more than just politics -- it was representative democracy. It seems to be very much your fault that that representative democracy devolved into mere ‘politics’.

I have no doubt oversimplified the events that led the failure of HB 885. Such oversimplification is necessary due to the limited information at the public’s disposal. Transparency has never been one of our government’s strengths and judging by the conflicting information regarding your position and salary with AmeriGroup, nor has it been one of your’s. If you have any more insight as to why such a necessary piece of legislation failed, I, and many other Georgians, would be eager to listen.

It is my hope that this letter not be discarded as the diatribe of a malcontent but rather serves as point of departure from which we can all reflect and move towards a more productive and just direction in the arena of medical marijuana. Furthermore, the overarching message of this letter must not be reserved only for the eyes and ears of you, Sen. Unterman -- all representatives should begin to represent the urgency demonstrated by an overwhelming majority of Georgians that want to see the establishment of sensible medical access and decriminalization.

Thank you for your time,

A Concerned Georgian