The Trump administration loosened the federal status of medical cannabis on April 23, but Tennessee’s elected officials don’t want U.S. drug policy to dictate their own.
Instead, Gov. Bill Lee signed legislation that same day to prevent his administration from taking similar action, removing trigger language under state law that would have allowed agency health officials to align a drug’s control status with the federal status.
This means the Tennessee commissioner of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services and the commissioner of Health no longer have the authority to “similarly control” substances in accordance with federal law without explicit permission from the Tennessee General Assembly.
Rep. Andrew Farmer, R-Sevierville, who sponsored the legislation, Senate Bill 1603, in the lower chamber, explained the impacts when the Legislature sent the proposal to the governor’s desk earlier this month.
“So, if the federal government were to reschedule medical cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III,” he said, “what this bill does is says that before any department or agency could do anything with it, they would have to have legislation from this body, from the Tennessee General Assembly, allowing for any department or agency within the state of Tennessee to act and make any sort of policies or rules or enable any sort of allocation of that medical cannabis to any Tennessean.”
Ten days after Farmer made those comments, U.S. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche signed an order to immediately reschedule state-licensed medical cannabis to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act.
The federal order comes at a time when Tennessee remains one of eight states that don’t license medical cannabis businesses. In other words, if Tennessee’s executive agencies had maintained the authority to reclassify cannabis to Schedule III under state law, there would be no licensed cannabis to fit the federal government’s new control status, unless state lawmakers passed legislation establishing a regulated medical cannabis marketplace.
Tennessee Rep. Jason Powell, D-Nashville, is requesting just that. The congressman called on Lee and his fellow lawmakers in the Republican-controlled General Assembly to consider a special session focused singularly on legalizing medical cannabis.
“For years, Tennesseans have been told to wait,” he said in an April 22 press release. “We created a commission. We studied the issue. We have heard from patients, doctors and families across this state. At some point, we have to be willing to act.”
While the legislation Lee signed on April 23 provides the Legislature greater authority over cannabis reform, the underlying intent of the bill is to mandate the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (TACIR) to “study” the best approach for establishing and implementing a medical cannabis program in the Volunteer State.
The TACIR is to report its findings, including the operational readiness of state and local governmental entities to support such a program, by Nov. 1.
Powell indicated that lawmakers should act sooner, emphasizing that a “responsible, physician-directed” framework would provide compassionate care for veterans, cancer patients and other Tennesseans who may be suffering with no relief from pharmaceutical medicines.
A longtime advocate for reform, Powell proposed a constitutional amendment to allow voters to legalize medical cannabis in 2022. Now he’s asking lawmakers to take the issue upon themselves.
“The suffering of Tennesseans who could benefit from medical cannabis is more than enough reason to bring lawmakers back to Nashville,” he said, adding that if Lee doesn’t call for a special session, then General Assembly leaders should call the session. “The question is simple: If Tennessee has studied this issue and the medical case is clear, what are we waiting for?”
Powell isn’t the only Tennessee lawmaker asking this question.
On the opposite side of the aisle, Sen. Kerry Roberts, R-Springfield, opposed the now-signed legislation to block state agencies’ rescheduling powers when the Senate passed the bill in March.
“We haven’t done anything for years,” he said. “So, if the feds make a decision to ‘reschedule, delete or redesignate,’ I just don’t have any confidence that we’ll ever do anything.”
