Tennessee lawmakers have passed a bill to block an automatic review that could potentially legalize medical marijuana under state law following the federal rescheduling of the drug.
Under current Tennessee law, federal reclassification of a substance triggers an automatic review by the state’s commissioner of health and commissioner of mental health and substance abuse services. But under HB1972 and its companion SB1603, which lawmakers voted to send to Gov. Bill Lee (R) on Monday, that would not be the case when it comes to cannabis.
“If marijuana is rescheduled or deleted as a controlled substance under federal law, then the commissioner of mental health and substance abuse services shall not reschedule or delete marijuana under [state drug laws] unless the general assembly has established a regulatory framework for marijuana and authorized the commissioner to reschedule or delete marijuana as a controlled substance,” the bill says.
Sen. Ferrell Haile (R), the lead sponsor of the senate legislation, said, “We don’t want the Wild West out here. We want the General Assembly deciding how we decide and deal with things.”
But Sen. Kerry Roberts (R) argued that it’s unlikely the legislature “will ever do anything” to legalize medical cannabis.
“We haven’t done
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