Lawmakers face conflicting calls to loosen, tighten regulation of hemp and marijuana

ATLANTA — Doctors gave Jennifer Conforti’s little girl powerful drugs to help her live with profound autism.

Abby, who is 15 now, was 3 when she was taking benzodiazepines to help with her reactions, such as biting the skin off her arm, Conforti said. The drugs were not helping, she said, and after Abby had to be restrained at school, Conforti decided to break the law.

She figured out how to source marijuana and break it down into a concentrate in her kitchen, she told lawmakers at the Georgia Capitol last month.

A decade ago, lawmakers passed a medical cannabis law that lets patients on a state registry obtain low-THC oil.

That helped, said Conforti, but she testified that patients need a product with higher levels of THC — the intoxicating psychoactive agent in marijuana — and in mor