NASHVILLE – A Tennessee legislative effort to legalize medical marijuana is dead for the year.
Sen. Steve Dickerson, R-Nashville, took the bill off notice Tuesday afternoon, with the physician telling Senate Judiciary Committee members he couldn’t support House changes that turned the original effort to create a carefully regulated regimen into a decriminalization effort with no way to purchase products here.
House sponsor Jeremy Faison, R-Cosby, made the changes to get the measure through the committee.
Dickerson told the committee that while he might be able to pass the House version, he didn’t want to because that likely would make it difficult to come back next year with the original version.
“I’d bet this body would tell me I needed to wait three or four years,” he predicted, saying that while the amended House version is “well intentioned” it “would be harmful to the patients over the next five years.”
Alluding to the phalanx of reporters present, Dickerson told colleagues he would spare them from “dragging this out interminably [before] TV cameras.”
He moved the bill to general subcommittee, later adding he wants the panel to study the issue and legislation during the summer.
Contact staff writer Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550. Follow on Twitter @AndySher1.