Is Weed Legal in Georgia? Penalties, Low THC Oil, and Delta-8

Recreational marijuana is not legal in Georgia. The state treats cannabis as a controlled substance, and possessing, growing, or selling it can bring anything from a misdemeanor fine to decades in prison depending on the amount. Two narrow exceptions exist: registered patients with certain serious medical conditions may possess a low-THC cannabis oil, and hemp-derived products that stay under the federal THC threshold are legal to buy and sell. Everything else falls under Georgia’s drug laws, with consequences that reach beyond a criminal case into your driver’s license, firearm rights, job, and housing.

Possession Penalties in Georgia

Georgia draws a hard line at one ounce.

Possessing one ounce or less of marijuana is a misdemeanor. The maximum penalty is 12 months in jail, a fine up to $1,000, or both.¹ A conviction also triggers a mandatory driver’s license suspension: six months for a first drug conviction, one year for a second, and two years for a third or subsequent.² That suspension applies whether or not you were driving.

Possessing more than one ounce is a felony carrying one to ten years in prison.³ The same one-to-ten-year range applies to selling or distributing any amount that falls below the trafficking threshold.

Selling, distributing, or possessing with intent to distribute within 1,000 feet of a school, park, or housing project brings enhanced penalties on top of the underlying offense. A first conviction in a drug-free zone can mean up to 20 years in prison and a $20,000 fine, with higher ceilings on later convictions.⁴

Trafficking Thresholds

Once you cross ten pounds, Georgia’s trafficking statute imposes mandatory minimums and heavy fines that judges cannot reduce:⁵

More than 10 pounds but less than 2,000 pounds: minimum 5 years and a $100,000 fine
2,000 pounds to less than 10,000 pounds: minimum 7 years and a $250,000 fine
10,000 pounds or more: minimum 15 years and a $1,000,000 fine

The maximum for any trafficking offense is 30 years.

The First-Offender Option

Georgia’s conditional discharge statute is the one meaningful safety valve for someone facing a first drug charge. A defendant with no prior drug conviction who pleads guilty or is found guilty of possession can ask the court to defer judgment and impose probation for up to three years instead of entering a conviction.¹ Probation often includes a rehabilitation program. Complete it and the charges are dismissed with no conviction on your record. You can use this option only once in your life, and violating any probation term lets the court enter a conviction and sentence you normally.

Paraphernalia Is a Separate Charge

Pipes, bongs, rolling papers used with marijuana, and growing equipment are all illegal to possess if you intend to use them with cannabis.⁶ Paraphernalia possession is a misdemeanor carrying up to 12 months in jail and a $1,000 fine. Prosecutors routinely stack this charge on top of possession from the same arrest, so a single encounter can produce two separate criminal counts.

Driving Under the Influence of Marijuana

Driving while impaired by marijuana is illegal under the same DUI statute that covers alcohol.⁷ Georgia does not set a specific THC blood concentration that automatically equals impairment. Instead, prosecutors must prove marijuana made you a less safe driver. A first or second marijuana DUI is a misdemeanor. Field sobriety tests, drug recognition evaluations, and blood draws are all in play, and refusing a blood test carries its own license consequences. The same rules apply to registered low-THC oil patients who drive while impaired by their medication.

The Low THC Oil Program

Georgia’s medical cannabis program is narrow. Registered patients may possess up to 20 fluid ounces of cannabis oil containing no more than 5 percent THC by weight, with CBD content equal to or greater than the THC content. The product must be in a pharmaceutical container labeled with its THC percentage.⁸⁹ Smokable flower, edibles, and higher-potency products are not part of the program.

Only Georgia residents diagnosed with specific qualifying conditions are eligible. The list, maintained by the Department of Public Health, includes end-stage cancer or cancer treatment producing severe wasting, seizure disorders, severe or end-stage multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s, sickle cell, Alzheimer’s, AIDS, and peripheral neuropathy, along with Crohn’s disease, ALS, autism spectrum disorder, PTSD, severe Tourette’s, intractable pain, mitochondrial disease, epidermolysis bullosa, and hospice status.¹⁰

A Georgia-licensed physician certifies the condition and submits paperwork to the Department of Public Health, which then issues a Low THC Oil Registry Card. The card is valid for five years and costs $30, plus a $3.75 fee if you pay online.¹¹ Product is dispensed through companies licensed by Georgia’s Access to Medical Cannabis Commission and through licensed independent pharmacies.¹²

Possessing low THC oil without a valid card is its own crime. Twenty fluid ounces or less without registration is a misdemeanor. More than 20 but less than 160 fluid ounces, or selling or distributing the oil, is a felony punishable by one to ten years and fines up to $50,000.⁹

Hemp Products and Delta-8

Hemp is legal in Georgia. Under the state Hemp Farming Act, which follows the federal 2018 Farm Bill, hemp is the Cannabis sativa plant with delta-9 THC concentration of no more than 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis.¹³ Hemp-derived CBD products that stay within that limit are legal to buy and sell.

Delta-8 THC sits in a gray area. Because it can be derived from legal hemp, and the Hemp Farming Act broadly covers hemp “derivatives, extracts, cannabinoids, isomers, acids, salts, and salts of isomers,” Delta-8 products are not explicitly banned. But the act excludes “food products infused with THC unless approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration,” and the FDA has not approved any such products.¹³¹⁴ Delta-8 vapes and tinctures sit in a legal gray zone; Delta-8 edibles face stronger arguments for illegality under both state and federal food safety law. Enforcement against intoxicating hemp products has been increasing, so treating Delta-8 as reliably legal in Georgia would be a mistake.

Local Decriminalization Ordinances

More than 20 cities and counties in Georgia have passed ordinances that soften enforcement of minor possession. These ordinances do not legalize cannabis. They reclassify possession of less than one ounce from a state misdemeanor arrest to a local civil citation, typically with a fine of about $75 to $150 and no jail time. Savannah’s ordinance, for example, caps the fine at $150 and prohibits imprisonment for possession of one ounce or less within city limits.¹⁵

The practical limits matter. A local officer may write you a citation under the city ordinance, but a state officer can still arrest you for the same conduct under state law. State or county prosecutors retain the power to file state-level misdemeanor charges regardless of the local ordinance. And nothing in these ordinances stops the automatic driver’s license suspension attached to a state drug conviction. Local decriminalization is a policy signal, not a legal shield.

Collateral Consequences That Catch People Off Guard

Even people who follow Georgia’s Low THC Oil Program to the letter run into problems created by federal law and by employers.

Firearms

Federal law prohibits anyone who uses a controlled substance from possessing firearms or ammunition. Marijuana remains a Schedule I substance under the Controlled Substances Act, and the ATF has stated that there is no exception for state-authorized medical use.¹⁶ A licensed dealer who knows a buyer holds a medical cannabis card has reasonable cause to believe the buyer is an unlawful user and cannot legally complete the sale. Holding a Georgia Low THC Oil card effectively means you cannot legally purchase or possess firearms under federal law.

Federal Land

National forests, military bases, and national parks follow federal law regardless of Georgia rules. Possessing any amount of cannabis on federal property is illegal, and a first offense can bring a mandatory appearance before a federal magistrate, up to one year in prison, and a minimum $1,000 fine.¹⁷ Georgia contains significant federal land, including the Chattahoochee National Forest and several military installations.

Federally Subsidized Housing

Federal housing regulations require property owners to deny admission to current users of a controlled substance and permit eviction of current tenants for marijuana use.¹⁸ Owners of federally assisted properties cannot adopt policies that affirmatively permit marijuana use, even for registered medical patients. A valid Georgia Low THC Oil card provides no protection here.

Employment

Georgia has no law protecting medical cannabis patients from workplace drug testing or from adverse employment actions based on a positive marijuana test. Employers can maintain zero-tolerance policies and can fire or decline to hire someone who tests positive, whether or not that person holds a registry card.

Federal Rescheduling

As of 2026, marijuana remains a Schedule I controlled substance under federal law. An administrative process to move it to Schedule III has been underway, and a December 2025 executive order directed the attorney general to expedite rescheduling, but hearings were postponed and proceedings remain suspended pending an appeal. Rescheduling would not make recreational use legal or override Georgia’s restrictions. The main effects would fall on cannabis businesses, banking access, and medical research. For an individual user in Georgia, day-to-day law would remain the same until the state legislature acts.

1
Justia Law. Georgia Code 16-13-2 – Conditional Discharge for Possession of Controlled Substances as First Offense and Certain Nonviolent Property Crimes; Dismissal of Charges; Restitution to Victims
2
Justia Law. Georgia Code 40-5-75 – Suspension of Licenses by Operation of Law
3
Justia Law. Georgia Code 16-13-30 – Purchase, Possession, Manufacture, Distribution, or Sale of Controlled Substances or Marijuana; Penalties
4
Justia Law. Georgia Code 16-13-32.4 – Manufacturing, Distributing, Dispensing, or Possessing With Intent to Distribute a Controlled Substance or Marijuana in, on, or Within 1,000 Feet of Real Property of Certain Facilities
5
Justia Law. Georgia Code 16-13-31 – Trafficking in Cocaine, Illegal Drugs, Marijuana, or Methamphetamine; Penalties
6
Justia Law. Georgia Code 16-13-32.2 – Possession and Use of Drug Related Objects
7
Justia Law. Georgia Code 40-6-391 – Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol, Drugs, or Other Intoxicating Substances
8
Georgia General Assembly. Senate Substitute to HB 1
9
Justia Law. Georgia Code 16-12-191 – Possession, Manufacture, Distribution, or Sale of Low THC Oil; Penalties
10
Georgia Department of Public Health. Low THC Oil Registry
11
Georgia Department of Public Health. New Information for Obtaining Low THC Oil Cards
12
GA Access to Medical Cannabis Commission. Dispensaries
13
Georgia Department of Agriculture. Georgia Hemp Farming Act (O.C.G.A. 2-23-1)
14
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. FDA Regulation of Cannabis and Cannabis-Derived Products, Including Cannabidiol (CBD)
15
City of Savannah. Ordinance Sec. 9-2026 Marijuana Simple Possession
16
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Open Letter to All Federal Firearms Licensees
17
U.S. Department of Agriculture – Forest Service. Cannabis Use on National Forest System Lands
18
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Use of Marijuana in Multifamily Assisted Properties