“In the state of Tennessee, marijuana is the number one drug associated with criminal activity, including violent crime.”
By Adam Friedman, Tennessee Lookout
Tennessee lawmakers held hearings to discuss implementing a limited medical marijuana program, but the state’s top law enforcement group remains the most vocal opposition.
Representatives from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, TBI, emerged as the strongest opponents, stating there were no circumstances in which they thought medical marijuana should be allowed in Tennessee.
“Marijuana is in fact a dangerous drug, whose use poses a significant threat to public safety, and whose cultivation poses a threat to the environment,” said Erica Stephens, a TBI agent working on the bureau’s Dangerous Drugs Task Force, to lawmakers during the hearing. “In the state of Tennessee, marijuana is the number one drug associated with criminal activity, including violent crime.”
Several lawmakers, including Republicans and the lone Democrat on the committee, appeared skeptical of Stephens’s testimony.
State Sen. London Lamar, a Memphis Democrat, said the correlation between marijuana use and violent crime was “inaccurate,” citing statistics that showed overdose deaths related to pot were virtually nonexistant.
“Crime is an issue for all of us,” Lamar said. “California and Colorado have significantly lower
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