A pair of Democratic state lawmakers in Tennessee this week introduced a bill to legalize both medical marijuana and adult-use cannabis in the state. The bill, known as the “Free All Cannabis for Tennesseans Act” (HB0085), was introduced in the House by Representative Bob Freeman—supported by fellow Democrat Senator Heidi Campbell—on Tuesday.

“This bill will support medical and recreational cannabis use because many other states already have recreational use,” Campbell said in a statement quoted by local media.

Bill Legalizes Possession Of Up To 60 Grams Of Weed

If passed, the bill would legalize the possession, use, and transportation of up to 60 grams of marijuana or up to 15 grams of cannabis concentrates for adults aged 21 and older. The measure also legalizes the home cultivation of up to 12 cannabis plants by adults in a secure location at home. Under the bill, parents and legal guardians would also be permitted to administer medical cannabis products to their minor children with a doctor’s authorization.

“It’s a full legalization of cannabis across the state,” Freeman noted in a statement last month.

The bill also legalizes commercial cannabis activity and tasks the Tennessee Department of Agriculture with drafting regulations to govern the cultivation, processing, and sale of cannabis and cannabis products in the state. The measure notes that more than three dozen states have legalized marijuana in some form and that Tennessee should follow suit “in order to remain competitive nationally and globally in the burgeoning cannabis industry.” The lawmakers also note that legal cannabis is readily available in five states that border Tennessee.

“If people can drive across the border to Indiana to get cannabis, then it doesn’t make any sense that we in Tennessee would be missing out on that economic advantage,” Campbell said.

Tennessee Still Prohibits All Marijuana

Tennessee is one of the few states that have yet to pass legislation to legalize marijuana, even for medicinal use. Freeman said that legalizing recreational marijuana would put an end to the disproportionate enforcement of laws that prohibit the possession and use of cannabis.

“If you live in a wealthy part of the state and a wealthy community in our city, and you get picked up using some cannabis for personal consumption, the odds of you getting a slap on the wrist and nothing happening is pretty high,” he said last month. If you live in a poorer neighborhood and you get picked up with cannabis, you’re going to jail.”

Legal Pot Available In Neighboring States

Three states bordering Tennessee—Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama—have legalized medical marijuana, while neighboring Missouri and Virginia have legalized both medical marijuana and adult-use cannabis. Proponents of legalization argue that Tennessee is missing out on tax revenue from the money residents spend on cannabis in neighboring states.

“Let’s not delude ourselves that people aren’t crossing the border and getting cannabis from other states. Of course they are,” Campbell said. “So, that’s just income we’re missing out on.”

Tennessee Democrats Support Legalization

Freeman and Campbell’s proposal is supported by fellow Democratic lawmakers in the Tennessee legislature. House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Ray Clemmons praised the bill last month after they announced their plan to introduce the legislation.

“The legalization of cannabis in Tennessee is long overdue. For too long, much of the TN GOP has stood in the way,” Clemmons wrote in a tweet. “Let’s do this in 2023!”

Previous attempts to legalize marijuana in Tennessee have met stiff opposition from Republican lawmakers, who enjoy a solid majority in both the state Senate and the House of Representatives. Republican state Senator Richard Briggs said that he opposes both medical marijuana and adult-use cannabis, noting the federal law has already made CBD legal nationwide.

“I’m not in favor at all of recreational marijuana and I have a lot of concerns about medical marijuana until we know more about it,” Briggs said. “I don’t think that it should be generally available. And at least at this point until something changes.”

Despite Republican opposition, Freeman rates the chance that the Tennessee legislature will legalize marijuana this year as “a solid 7, 7.5,” on a scale of one to 10. But Campbell expressed far less optimism.

“Pretty low—I won’t give you a number,” she said, “but I have no delusions we’re going to pass it this session.”

But Campbell added that introducing the legislation is still important to keep the conversation about cannabis policy reform moving forward.

“We ran it last session, and I think it’s important to run it so that we keep the issue alive, we keep the messaging going,” she said. “Obviously, at some point, that’s going to happen, so we’re just going to keep knocking on that door until somebody opens it.”

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A bill that would have brought sweeping cannabis reform to Tennessee appears to have fallen short in this year’s legislative session.

Local television station WKRN reports that the bill, known as the “Free All Cannabis for Tennesseans Act,” is “effectively dead” after its sponsor, Democratic state House Rep. Bob Freeman pulled the measure from the floor.

Freeman’s legislation would have resulted in significant changes in how the Volunteer State handles both recreational and medicinal cannabis, both of which are illegal in Tennessee.

It makes Tennessee stand out in an era of nationwide legalization, when one state after another has ended prohibition.

Freeman noted that many of Tennessee’s neighbors have either legalized cannabis in some form or are looking to do so.

“There is a very real possibility that, by the time we come back next year, we will be the only state that touches Tennessee that has not done some sort of legalization,” Freeman said, as quoted by WKRN.

The bill would have authorized the “the possession and transport of marijuana or marijuana concentrate, in permitted amounts, for adults who are at least 21 years of age,” the “transfer of marijuana or marijuana concentrate between adults, in permitted amounts, without remuneration,” and the “cultivation of up to 12 marijuana plants for adults.”

It also would have opened up medical cannabis treatment to minors by authorizing “a parent, guardian, or conservator to administer a marijuana product, excluding any combustible product, to a minor, over whom the parent, guardian, or conservator has legal authority.”

Under the legislation, the state Department of Health would have provided a form on its website “that, upon execution by a parent, guardian, or conservator, after consultation with a healthcare practitioner, creates a rebuttable presumption that the minor has a medical condition for which the use of marijuana is treatment for any such condition.”

But Freeman’s bill always had an uphill climb in Tennessee’s Republican-dominated legislature. The state’s GOP governor, Bill Lee, has said that he is against legalizing pot.

As Freeman sees it, Tennessee is now at risk of being left in the dust, with other southern states moving to legalize medical cannabis. Mississippi legalized the treatment in February, and Alabama did the same last year.

Under Freeman’s bill, the sale of cannabis would have been subject to state and local sales and use tax, “as well as an additional 15% marijuana tax.”

It also would have established that “local governments can impose a local sales tax on such sales, not to exceed 5% of the price of the products sold, of which proceeds shall be distributed identical to the existing local sales and use tax.”

“It highlights the fact that we are continuing to turn our back to the potential revenue for taxing this legally — people are already using it or else they wouldn’t be getting picked up and we’re criminalizing this putting people in jail for what is legal in other states,” Freeman said, as quoted by the station.

Freeman believes that most Tennessee voters are with him on the issue, a theory that could be tested in November’s general election.

In January, a pair of state lawmakers introduced a bill that would direct county election officials to conduct a public opinion poll on cannabis policy on this year’s ballot.

The legislation would place three non-binding questions on the general election ballot: Should the state of Tennessee legalize medical cannabis?; Should the state decriminalize the possession of less than one ounce of cannabis?; and Should the state legalize and regulate the commercial sales of recreational cannabis?

“We’ve been wrestling around with this for years and years now,” one of the bill’s sponsors, state House Rep. Bruce Griffey, said at the time. “A bunch of jurisdictions have taken a step to legalize it. There’s certainly some valid arguments, is marijuana any worse than alcohol in certain situations?”

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