GEORGIA:  Georgia’s governor is pushing clinical trials for a marijuana-derived drug that proponents say could help treat severe seizure disorders among children, an unlikely election-year move for a Republican in a conservative part of the country that is just beginning to warm up to medical marijuana in narrow circumstances.

Since 1996, 23 states around the country and the District of Columbia have legalized comprehensive access to medical marijuana, and two have decriminalized the drug entirely. But the South has largely resisted out of fears it could lead to widespread drug abuse and other social ills.

This year, though, six Southern states adopted laws establishing some limited access to marijuana products that have minimal or no tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the psychoactive compound in marijuana that makes users feel high. A similar effort in Georgia failed on the last day of the legislative session, which prompted Deal — a Republican up for re-election — to take action to coordinate clinical trial programs in the state.