A Senator in Tennessee is planning to fight again for the state to legalize medical marijuana.
“Three and a half years ago, had you told me that I would be proposing legislation to support medical cannabis and the legalization of medical cannabis — I would have laughed in your face,” remarked Sen. Janice Bowling, R-District 16. “I was against it,” she exclaimed.
Things have certainly changed for the senator as she has now been fighting for years to legalize medical marijuana. Last year she even brought forth physicians to testify before the State Senate’s Health and Welfare committee.
“Opioid use requirements decline when a patient is allowed to combine those with cannabis. And the cannabis, refreshingly for me as a prescriber, has no known lethal dose,” said Dr. Amy Neff, a family physician with St. Thomas Brentwood.
Bowling says she plans to re-introduce her bill at the State Senate session in January.
It will then be heard by the Senate Committee.
“We’re up to 43 states that have legalized it and many of the states around us have legalized it,” said Bowling. “We are being foolish in the worst sense of the word. Just incredibly foolish and incredibly lacking in responsiveness to what is now readily available for people to know that this is a safe medicine solution.”
In a recent campaign ad, fellow state Sen. Steve Dickerson (R) talks about both the therapeutic benefits of cannabis and the consequences of broader marijuana criminalization.
“As your state senator, I’ve led the fight to legalize medical marijuana so our veterans and sickest Tennesseans can deal with chronic pain,” he said. “But this same life-saving plant has led to mass incarceration, with nonviolent marijuana possession resulting in lengthy prison sentences.”
He tweeted, “It’s past time for Tennessee to legalize medical cannabis and give our sickest residents a smart, safe treatment to help with chronic pain. Legalization and securing criminal justice reform have been my top priorities, and I won’t stop fighting until we’ve changed the law.”
