After years of marijuana bills being kicked around the General Assembly, only to be booted, two lawmakers are hoping to find out exactly what the public thinks about cannabis with a ballot initiative. In a somewhat odd pairing, Rep. Bruce Griffey, a firebrand Republican from Paris, and Sen. Sara Kyle, a liberal Democrat from Memphis, are sponsoring legislation enabling voters to weigh in with a state-sponsored public opinion poll. The measure—Senate Bill 1973/House Bill 1634—would require county election commissions to include three non-binding questions related to the legalization of marijuana on the 2022 ballot. The secretary of state would then compile the results and forward them to the Legislature. Griffey was unable to find any Republican senators who would sponsor the bill, which doesn’t bode well for passage in the GOP-controlled body, but Kyle agreed to carry it in the upper chamber because she supports passage of each question it asks. “To me, there’s no downside to it, very minimal cost. Let the Tennessee voters at least express their opinion in an unbiased manner so all of us as legislators have a sense of what the voters would like us to do,” Griffey said Wednesday. While Tennessee has a limited CBD medical cannabis law in place, measures to provide broader patient access have made it a couple of steps in committees in recent years but have never gotten to the House floor.
Marijuana Moment, Marijuana Moment, 01/27/2022 09:17:00