Medical Marijuana Snubbed Out for the Year, but Sponsor Promises Another Try

A bill to make marijuana legal – as a prescription drug – died a legislative death today, but backers say they’re more optimistic than ever that Tennessee will eventually have medical marijuana.

The bill made it all the way to standing committees in both chambers before it was snuffed out.

Memphis Democrat Jeanne Richardson, who has carried the bill for several years, urged fellow lawmakers to talk to their constituents about the issue while on the campaign trail.

“We’re all gonna be out campaigning, and I hope I win, so I can bring this bill back next year, but if I don’t, someone will bring this bill back next year.”

Supporters of medical marijuana say they are now counting lawmakers in both parties as allies.

The measure, like all bills left unpassed at the end of a legislative session, will officially die when the last gavel bangs – probably next month.

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The bill (now dead), HB 294 Richardson/SB 251 Marrero, had a busy last day.

The Senate version escaped the Senate Government Operations Committee with an unfavorable recommendation. That wasn’t as important as the fact that the Senate Health Committee, next in line to review the bill, had adjourned for the year.

But House Health Committee Chair Glen Casada, an opponent of the bill, allowed Richardson to put on a presentation by legal-marijuana backers.

One of the local backers is Bernie Ellis, a retired public health official who has been drafting bills on the subject for years. Ellis was upbeat.

“Over the last two weeks, in, now, three committee hearings, we now show bipartisan support for the concept, and that’s a major step forward.”

Ellis says the New Hampshire legislature, dominated by Republicans, recently made medical marijuana legal. As Tennessee has considered the step, the science of how to do it has advanced, Ellis says.

“…and equally importantly, the weight of experience. I mean, these programs have now existed in some states, as long as 16 years.”

Health Committee member Rep. Mike Turner of Nashville shared family experience with a medicine brand-named Marisol.

“My mother in law, who had cancer several years ago, that was prescribed to her. The doctor said then if she could smoke it, or inhale it in some other way, through vapor or something, it would have more effect on her, than what she had. So we’re already allowing marijuana products to be used, here in Tennessee.”

Richardson “took the bill off notice,” meaning in this case she won’t pursue it for the rest of the session.

The bill dies with the adjournment of the 107th General Assembly.