---
type: "Bill"
title: "Drug Abuse Treatment and Education Programs; patient brokering; prohibit; definitions; exceptions; penalties; provide"
description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 5 of Title 26 of the O.C.G.A., relating to drug abuse treatment and education programs, so as to prohibit patient brokering; to provide for definitions; to provide for exceptions; to provide for penalties; to provide for enforcement; to provide for venue; to provide for reasonable expenses; to provide for cumulative actions; to amend Chapter 1 of Title 33 of the O.C.G.A., relating to general provisions regarding insurance, so as to provide that excessive, fraudulent, or high-tech drug testing of certain individuals is considered a fraudulent insurance act; to provide for investigation by the Commissioner of Insurance; to provide for penalties; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ga"
legislature: "Georgia General Assembly"
session: "2021_22"
identifier: "SB 4"
citation: "Georgia SB 4 (2021_22)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Ben Watson", "Dean Burke", "Kay Kirkpatrick", "Michael 'Doc' Rhett", "Randy Robertson"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 16
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2021-01-12"
last_action: "2021-07-01"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/c130461b-ccfc-48de-9b21-4b1d1fef9858"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "d800835b5e4fe39970d03d311630831c063a5adbacb8de75cf254ffd14285c88"
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 4 (2021_22) — Drug Abuse Treatment and Education Programs; patient brokering; prohibit; definitions; exceptions; penalties; provide

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 5 of Title 26 of the O.C.G.A., relating to drug abuse treatment and education programs, so as to prohibit patient brokering; to provide for definitions; to provide for exceptions; to provide for penalties; to provide for enforcement; to provide for venue; to provide for reasonable expenses; to provide for cumulative actions; to amend Chapter 1 of Title 33 of the O.C.G.A., relating to general provisions regarding insurance, so as to provide that excessive, fraudulent, or high-tech drug testing of certain individuals is considered a fraudulent insurance act; to provide for investigation by the Commissioner of Insurance; to provide for penalties; to provide for related matters; 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 33 8467** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20212022/195664.pdf)
2. **As passed Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20212022/197136.pdf)
3. **LC 33 8708S/hss** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20212022/199283.pdf)
4. **SB 4/AP*** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20212022/201183.pdf)

## Votes

- PASSAGE — **52–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Ben Watson — primary (person)
- Dean Burke — primary (person)
- Kay Kirkpatrick — primary (person)
- Michael 'Doc' Rhett — primary (person)
- Randy Robertson — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2021-01-12** Senate Hopper
- **2021-01-13** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2021-02-04** Senate Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-02-08** Senate Read Second Time `reading-2`
- **2021-02-09** Senate Third Read `reading-3`
- **2021-02-09** Senate Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2021-02-10** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2021-02-11** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2021-03-03** House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-03-11** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2021-03-11** House Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
- **2021-03-23** Senate Agreed House Amend or Sub
- **2021-04-07** Senate Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2021-05-04** Senate Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2021-05-04** Act 205 `executive-signature`
- **2021-07-01** Effective Date

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/c130461b-ccfc-48de-9b21-4b1d1fef9858`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).