Senate 'Scared,' Tennessee Medical Marijuana Effort Dies

NASHVILLE, TN — Medical marijuana has the State Senate paranoid, according to the House sponsor of a bill which would establish a framework for medical pot in Tennessee.

Rep. Jeremy Faison, Republican of Cosby, took the bill off-notice and said it was headed for a summer study task force to be appointed by House Speaker Beth Harwell and Lt. Gov. Randy McNally. He said he thought he had the votes to pass it in the House, but the Senate, where the bill was sponsored by Nashville Republican Sen. Steve Dickerson, was a different story.

"The Senate, bless their heart, are just scared to death of their voters," Faison said

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Among other aspects, Faison and Dickerson emphasized a belief that medical weed could cut down on opioid addiction, which is at epidemic levels in Tennessee.

"That plant — it's not killing us, it's the legal prescriptions that are killing us," Faison said.

When Faison and Dickerson, who is a doctor, introduced the bill earlier this year, many observers believed it had a better-than-average chance of passing because of several factors: the opioid crisis, Tennessee already OKed cannabis oil for medical use and, politically, because it was being brought by two Republicans. While Dickerson is a moderate — perhaps the most moderate Republican lawmaker in Tennessee — Faison comes from a more conservative bent. During a committee meeting, he pointed out that even the state's most rock-ribbed conservatives appear to be shifting towards comfort with medical marijuana, citing a Tennessee for Conservative Action poll that showed 52 percent of respondents — who Faison called "hardcore tea party Republicans" — supported medical marijuana.

"Tennessee is there, my constituents are there, their constituents are there, I just have to get the Senate there," Faison said, saying that due to increased support and rising concern about opioids, legislators may, in fact, face harsher political implications for opposing medical marijuana than for supporting it.

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