---
type: "Bill"
title: "Drug Abuse Treatment and Education Programs; provide for a moratorium on the issuance of new licenses to narcotic treatment programs"
description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 5 of Title 26 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to drug abuse treatment and education programs, so as to provide for a moratorium on the issuance of new licenses to narcotic treatment programs; to create the State Commission on Narcotic Treatment Programs; to provide legislative findings and intent; to provide for the membership, powers, duties, compensation, and allowances of the commission; to provide for the abolishment of the commission; to suspend the acceptance of applications and issuing of licenses for narcotic treatment programs for a certain period; to provide for exceptions; to provide for related matters; to provide an effective date; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ga"
legislature: "Georgia General Assembly"
session: "2015_16"
identifier: "SB 402"
citation: "Georgia SB 402 (2015_16)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Ben Watson", "Dean Burke", "Jeff Mullis", "Tyler Harper"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 15
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2016-02-18"
last_action: "2016-04-26"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/63681c18-53aa-4a4d-bb59-f1e2103f1bb3"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "3394bcf7adff0a9243ec4881ca9223318d0d258f14b17779190c3decd591266e"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ga"]
---

# Georgia SB 402 (2015_16) — Drug Abuse Treatment and Education Programs; provide for a moratorium on the issuance of new licenses to narcotic treatment programs

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 5 of Title 26 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to drug abuse treatment and education programs, so as to provide for a moratorium on the issuance of new licenses to narcotic treatment programs; to create the State Commission on Narcotic Treatment Programs; to provide legislative findings and intent; to provide for the membership, powers, duties, compensation, and allowances of the commission; to provide for the abolishment of the commission; to suspend the acceptance of applications and issuing of licenses for narcotic treatment programs for a certain period; to provide for exceptions; to provide for related matters; to provide an effective date; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **As introduced LC 37 2143** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/157908.pdf)
2. **As passed Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/159148.pdf)
3. **Committee sub LC 37 2165S** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/158693.pdf)
4. **LC 37 2193S/hss** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/160062.pdf)
5. **SB 402/AP*** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/162444.pdf)

## Votes

- PASSAGE BY SUBSTITUTE — **54–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Ben Watson — primary (person)
- Dean Burke — primary (person)
- Jeff Mullis — primary (person)
- Tyler Harper — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2016-02-18** Senate Hopper
- **2016-02-19** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2016-02-25** Senate Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2016-02-26** Senate Read Second Time `reading-2`
- **2016-02-29** Senate Third Read `reading-3`
- **2016-02-29** Senate Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
- **2016-03-02** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2016-03-07** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2016-03-10** House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2016-03-15** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2016-03-15** House Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
- **2016-03-24** Senate Agreed House Amend or Sub
- **2016-04-04** Senate Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2016-04-26** Senate Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2016-04-26** Act 343 `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/63681c18-53aa-4a4d-bb59-f1e2103f1bb3`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).