The state Senate is hearing testimony this afternoon on whether to legalize medical marijuana in Tennessee, and the first witness—state Health Commissioner John Dreyzehner—has made it clear the Haslam administration is dead-set against it.
In what could have passed for a scene from Reefer Madness, Dreyzehner rattled off a long and alarming list of “very risky” things that could go wrong with letting sick people smoke weed—addiction, depression, car wrecks and even poisonings and schizophrenia! Bummer! The commissioner likened medical marijuana to some kind of miracle elixir from an old-time medicine show and warned against running an experiment with Tennesseans as the guinea pigs.
“I am confident that none of us wants to experiment on our Tennessee population and we urge continued watchful caution on this issue,” he told the Health and Welfare Committee.
When the bill’s sponsor—Nashville Republican Steve Dickerson, himself a physician—pointed out only really sick people would qualify under the program for medical marijuana and no one under the age of 18, Dreyzehner doubled down.
“We smoke too much. We eat too much. We don’t get enough physical activity. I don’t see any way that experimenting in this fashion … helps our overall population's health,” he said.
Medical marijuana has come a long way in Tennessee. In the past, only old hippies and wacky Democrats ever favored the idea. Now it’s suddenly broadly popular and even Republicans are getting behind it. This bill was postponed in the last legislative session. Today’s hearing showed there remain a few hurdles to jump before this state joins the 21st century on this topic.
Update: The governor states the obvious: "I don’t see a big chance for that passing."
Update II: Bernie Ellis, former public health official and author of the competing Democratic bill to legalize medical marijuana, responds to the administration testimony. (See his full statement in the comment section below.)
They spoke as if the reestablishment of a state medical marijuana program in TN would introduce a new unknown substance into the boiling pot of risky substances consumed in this state. To the contrary, marijuana has been used medically, recreationally and spiritually for the past 5,000 years. Tennessee has been in the top five marijuana producing states for the past 50 years and it remains easy to obtain on any downtown Nashville street corner. Despite this long term availability, we still have no zombie apocalypse in our state. Why? Because marijuana is the safest therapeutically active substance known to man, according to the DEA's own administrative law judge.
