Tennessee Lawmakers Reject Three Medical Cannabis Bills

Three bills to expand Tennessee’s medical cannabis program have failed in the state’s legislature, according to a WTVF report.

The measures, separately, would have expanded the state’s qualifying conditions list, allowed people participating in federal Food and Drug Administration medical cannabis trials to bring products back to the state without penalty, while another would have added cancer and irritable bowel disease to the qualifying conditions list.

The legislation to largely expand access was pushed to next year by the bill sponsor, who hopes to get another bill to a different subcommittee that might be more favorable to the measure. The other two other bills were rejected by the Mental Health and Substance Committee.

State Sen. Steve Dickerson, a Republican, told the station that he hopes to take up the broader expansion next year with a “well thought-out” bill that would be approved by the legislature and the governor. In the meantime, he plans to combine the three bills recently rejected by the legislature and get them in front of a different committee.

Under the state’s current medical cannabis program, licensed physicians can recommend cannabis oil with less than 0.9 percent THC for seizure disorders. The oil can only be produced by a university as part of a clinical trial. The law has been amended twice since it’s 2014 passage but both times the changes have only added more restrictions to the already narrow program.