{"id":86853,"date":"2026-09-09T08:40:32","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T16:40:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2026\/09\/09\/georgia-medical-cannabis-patients-can-now-vape-but-not-smoke-marijuana\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T19:46:29","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T03:46:29","slug":"georgia-medical-cannabis-patients-can-now-vape-but-not-smoke-marijuana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2026\/09\/09\/georgia-medical-cannabis-patients-can-now-vape-but-not-smoke-marijuana\/","title":{"rendered":"Georgia Medical Cannabis Patients Can Now Vape\u2014But Not Smoke\u2014Marijuana"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

\u201cThe law is very clear. You can vaporize flower and then of course vaporize the vape oil. So, the only thing that\u2019s allowed in inhalables is vaporizing.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

By Alander Rocha, Georgia Recorder<\/strong><\/p>\n

Medical cannabis dispensaries are now selling the flower form of the drug in Georgia, but a new state law that took effect this summer has created some confusion over how it can be legally consumed.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers passed a measure earlier this year that overhauled the state\u2019s medical cannabis program<\/a> by dropping the confusing \u201clow THC oil\u201d branding, allowing dry-herb and oil vaporization, adding qualifying medical conditions and removing previous potency barriers.<\/p>\n

The changes quickly triggered significant growth in the number of patients enrolled in the program<\/a>, with nearly 50,000 patients as of September 2, according to the Department of Public Health.<\/p>\n

But limits remain on how the raw cannabis flower can be used. Smoking it remains illegal under the new state law known as the Putting Patients First Act, which allows registered patients 21 and older to consume flower and oil at home strictly through vaporization.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe law is very clear. You can vaporize flower and then of course vaporize the vape oil. So, the only thing that\u2019s allowed in inhalables is vaporizing. That\u2019s it,\u201d said Newnan Republican state Sen. Matt Brass, the bill\u2019s sponsor, in a phone interview.<\/p>\n

Because flower is now being sold in Georgia\u2019s dispensaries and independent pharmacies, retailers are finding themselves at the forefront of educating patients who incorrectly assume the availability of flower means the state legalized traditional smoking.<\/p>\n

Priya Raje, the owner of Lotus Farmacy in Suwanee, an independent pharmacy specializing in medical cannabis, said she is frequently asked about the difference between smoking and vaping and said that a part of her role is to educate patients on what\u2019s legal in Georgia.<\/p>\n

She said that most people are familiar with smoking flower because it\u2019s the way cannabis has been historically consumed, so she spends that extra time educating patients about what is allowed under the law.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just tell them what the legality is and what the risks are if they choose to do anything else,\u201d Raje said.<\/p>\n

Yolanda Bennett, who is a patient and co-head of the Georgia Medical Cannabis Society, which is an organization that advocates for medical cannabis access and educates patients, said smoking and vaporizing flower form of cannabis are entirely different methods.<\/p>\n

She said that smoking flower burns all the particles and plant matter and creates smoke from the combustion, whereas vaporization using a device only heats up the plant matter to a certain temperature without burning it, only creating an inhalable vapor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you take a flame and ignite the flower, that\u2019s illegal,\u201d Bennett said.<\/p>\n

The bill did not originally allow Georgians to vaporize the flower, but Brass said he didn\u2019t push back after the House amended the bill to include it because he figured that vaping flower could be a healthier alternative to oil vapes.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got different additives that are put in that oil to have it hit a certain percent, and the flower is grown and there\u2019s nothing added to it, and so that was why I agreed to it. I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s why [the House] added it, but to me, that makes sense,\u201d Brass said.<\/p>\n

This story was first published by Georgia Recorder.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The post Georgia Medical Cannabis Patients Can Now Vape\u2014But Not Smoke\u2014Marijuana<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\u201cThe law is very clear. You can vaporize flower and then of course vaporize the vape oil. So, the only thing that\u2019s allowed in inhalables is vaporizing.\u201d By Alander Rocha, Georgia Recorder Medical cannabis dispensaries are now selling the flower form of the drug in Georgia, but a new stateContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":457,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86853"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86853"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86854,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86853\/revisions\/86854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}