Another step toward THC oil in Georgia

Georgia took the next step towards making low-THC oil available in the state with the appointment of a board to oversee the cultivation of marijuana. Currently, about 15,000 people have a license to use the cannabinoid oil for certain medical conditions, but no legal way to actually get it.

The fix, based on a law signed in April:

  1. Solicit applications to be on a seven-member oversight board to oversee the issue.
  2. Appoint that board.
  3. Choose up to six companies to cultivate up to nine acres of marijuana-growing space.
  4. Set up a system for testing and overseeing those companies and creating the oil.
  5. Set up a system for delivering the oil to patients with licenses.

We have now reached step 2, as…

[Governor Brian] Kemp, House Speaker David Ralston and Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan appointed seven members to a commission that will issue licenses for companies to grow and sell medical marijuana oil.

Who’s on the board?

  • Danielle Benson, franchise owner of Massage Envy
  • Dr. William Bornstein, chief medical officer, Emory Healthcare
  • Dr. Christopher Edwards, principal surgeon, Atlanta Neurological & Spine Institute
  • Jason Hockenberry, associate professor of health policy, Emory University
  • Bill Prather, president, Georgia Board of Pharmacy
  • Dr. Judith Rochon, Kaiser Permanente
  • Bob Starrett, Austell police chief

Georgia compounder takes second place

Congrats to Chris Coleman of Chancy Drugs in Valdosta, whose team earned second place at the Pharmacy Compounding Centers of America International Seminar for its creative compounded preparation.

Good news for vapers

If worst comes to worst, you can always get a double-lung transplant!

MTM: Improve your practice, your résumé, and your patients’ lives

Provide the best patient care — Earn an APhA medication therapy management certificate through GPhA.

Delivering Medication Therapy Management Services: A Certificate Training Program for Pharmacists offers a full-day of training — providing MTM, implementing the services in your practice, encouraging patients, and a lot more — not to mention giving you a total of 21 CPE hours (including the home-study part).

It’s Sunday, January 12 from
8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
at GPhA Headquarters in Sandy Springs [map].

Just $349 for GPhA members
$499 for non-members! Click here for more — CPE details, instructors, and more … then sign up today!

Giving chase

It’s nice to know that if your pharmacy is burglarized, Georgia state troopers are willing to chase the suspects for several hours — and even into Alabama.

Meanwhile in Washington

The Trump administration’s proposed budget is out, and has some notable items regarding healthcare:

  • Cutting Medicare spending by $845 billion over 10 years, including $457 billion in direct cuts*, with the rest anticipated from reducing fraud and “wasteful spending.”

  • Cutting spending on global AIDS-prevention programs, but…
  • Spending $291 million to fight HIV infection in the U.S.
  • Cutting the CDC budget by about 10 percent
  • Cutting the National Institutes of Health budget by about $4.5 billion (mostly with cuts to the National Cancer Institute), but …
  • Increasing pediatric cancer research funding by $50 million
  • Cutting Medicaid funding by $300 billion over 10 years ($1.5 trillion in cuts, but $1.2 trillion added in block grants)
  • Eliminating funding to states that have expanded Medicaid under Obamacare

Understatement of the week:

The changes are expected to encounter fierce resistance from industry lobbying groups, and members of Congress traditionally nervous about backing cuts to health-care programs.

Want to read the whole thing in detail? Click right here.

* Grandma is not gonna be happy

This stuff is still out there?

Amneal Pharmaceuticals is recalling its ranitidine tablets and syrup.

No wonder they’re so twitchy

If your favorite prairie vole wears pajamas that are fire retardant, the chemical in them “increases anxiety and affects socioemotional behaviors” and could have other long term effects.

Mylan and Upjohn choose a name

The combined generics company will not, sadly, be “MyJohn.” Instead, the companies have chosen “Viatris” (rhymes with Beatrice?).

If you say so: “The name Viatris communicates the strength of our companies’ combined heritage and our shared goal to provide the highest-quality medicines to the most patients possible,” according to MyJohn Viatris CEO Michael Goettler.