Medical Marijuana & Tennessee

I remember the days when then-State Senator Steve Cohen was a lone voice in the wilderness as he began introducing medical cannabis bills in TN. Since then, year after year, legislators in Tennessee propose cannabis law reform bills without much hope of passing them. Unfortunately, Tennessee does not have the ability to place citizen-backed ballot initiatives up for the entire state to decide. That is the primary reason we have medical cannabis in AR and MS, but we do not have it in TN.

This year, over 17 bills have been introduced in TN to either make cannabis medically legal or to decriminalize possession. Even though support for medical cannabis in Tennessee has ranged from the upper 70th percentile to the upper 80th percentile, the TN GOP still refuses to back reform. They claim they do not want to take action until the federal government makes a decision. Since when did conservatives in TN care about what the federal government decides before coming to their own conclusion in their own state? This is another example of partisan cherry-picking.

To make matters worse, there is the proposed constitutional amendment by Rep. Brandon Ogles, R-Franklin, which would prevent recreational cannabis from being legal in TN without amending the state constitution. 15 states have now enacted recreational cannabis laws, while a total of 36 states, District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands have approved comprehensive, publicly available medical marijuana/cannabis programs. Canada has legalized recreational use while Mexico appears to be moving towards the same approach. All of this is taking place, while TN is discussing making it constitutionally illegal to legalize recreational cannabis. The rest of the world, even in Mississippi and Arkansas, is moving forward while TN continues to look backwards. This trend will continue as long as we continue to elect conservative Republicans to the TN state legislature.

Written by John Marek

CEO, Dune Valley Farms, LLC