DALTON, Ga. — Sheli Gilley’s 12-year-old daughter Zoe has Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and CDKL5, both of which cause frequent and severe seizures.

“She has suffered from up to 100 debilitating seizures a day since she was six weeks old,” said Gilley. “She has been on over 20 different seizure medications. They all failed in controlling her seizures.”

Gilley, of Dalton, said Zoe went into status epilepsy, in which seizures immediately follow each other without the person regaining consciousness, about six or seven years ago and was in a coma for two-and-a-half weeks.

But about four years ago, Zoe began taking cannabis oil to treat her seizures.

“She was able to wean off of all four seizure medications and is down to less than 10 seizures a day,” said Gilley.

Gilley said cannabis oil doesn’t have the side effects of the seizure medications Zoe was taking.

“We had to do liver checks (with the seizure medicines) all the time. Her liver enzymes were always elevated,” she said. “After we weaned her off those medications, that stopped,”

“There has been a remarkable improvement in her cognitive and physical abilities,” Gilley said.

State law allows individuals with more than a dozen conditions, including cancer, seizure disorders and Parkinson’s disease, to possess and use cannabis oil that has no more than 5 percent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the chemical that gets people high. But it remains illegal to grow, process, buy, sell or transport cannabis, so the oil isn’t currently legally available in Georgia. Gilley has to obtain it from South Carolina. She said that’s why she supports state House Bill 324, which would allow 10 companies to grow and produce medical cannabis oil, and as many as 60 dispensaries across the state to sell it.

The bill passed the state House of Representatives by 123 to 40 earlier this month and is awaiting action in the state Senate.

“It would improve access for families such as mine,” Gilley said. “We should be able to drive to a dispensary and get it that day. When you have to ship it, it can take five days.”

But some law enforcement officials have expressed concern about the bill.

Whitfield County Sheriff Scott Chitwood was among a group of seven north Georgia sheriffs who held a press conference earlier this month to air their concerns. He noted that he and sheriffs across the state supported the original law to allow low-THC oil to treat children with seizures. But he said the sheriffs believe there are many unanswered questions and concerns about this bill “as it is currently written.”

“If this is for medical purposes, why isn’t the pharmacy board involved? If it is a plant that is growing, why isn’t the Department of Agriculture involved?” Chitwood said in an interview. “There are just a lot of unanswered questions.”

Chitwood said he believes this is a step toward the legalization of recreational marijuana use in Georgia.

Gilley said she is upset with the sheriffs’ stance.

“They say they supported children with seizures using cannabis oil, but no one else,” she said. “So adults with seizures don’t matter? What about the thousands of people suffering with other debilitating conditions? Why is one person’s suffering more or less important than another?

“They are upset that the Department of Agriculture is prohibited from regulation. That was done intentionally because the department has specifically asked to be left out of regulation as long as it is still federally illegal. Other states have taken the same approach.”

Rep. Kasey Carpenter, R-Dalton, Rep. Rick Jasperse, R-Jasper, Rep. Jason Ridley, R-Chatsworth, and Rep. Steve Tarvin, R-Chickamauga, all voted for the bill. Rep. Matt Barton, R-Calhoun, was the only member of the Whitfield and Murray County delegation to the state House to vote against the bill.

“I realize I was in the minority, both in the House and in the local delegation,” Barton said. “But our local sheriffs don’t want Georgia to follow California and Colorado (to legalize recreational marijuana). They said this is how it got started there. It was a hard vote. I know there are children with seizures who have benefited tremendously from cannabis oil. I hope that the Senate can find a compromise that can satisfy the sheriffs and the parents.”

State Sen. Chuck Payne, R-Dalton, said he hasn’t made up his mind how he will vote.

“I’m still researching, listening and learning,” he said. “My concern is that I spent 30 years (as a juvenile probation officer) telling teenagers that the law matters, that we have to obey all of them even if we don’t like them. And marijuana is still illegal under federal law. I’m concerned that we might be setting the precedent that states can do what they want regardless of federal law.”

Gilley said it makes no sense to tell people they can use cannabis oil and provide them no way to obtain it. There are currently about 8,000 patients in Georgia registered to use medical marijuana.

“There are a lot more than 8,000 patients that would register if they actually had a way to obtain the oil,” Gilley said.