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

Open article: https://www.marijuanamoment.net/bipartisan-tennessee-lawmakers-want-to-put-marijuana-on-the-ballot-for-voters-to-decide/

A bill to legalize marijuana in Delaware cleared its first legislative hurdle on Wednesday, advancing out of the House Health and Human Development Committee on a 10-4 vote. The legislation is sponsored by Rep. Ed Osienski (D), who introduced a similar proposal last year. The Health and Human Development Committee approved last year’s measure, too, but it ultimately stalled ahead of an expected floor vote due to disagreements over social equity provisions. At the time, Osienski pledged to bring a revised bill for the 2022 session that could earn broad enough support to pass. Osienski said at the hearing that the proposal would “create good-paying jobs for Delawareans while striking a blow against the criminal element which profits from the thriving illegal market in our state.” Rep. Paul Baumbach (D), a co-sponsor of both the current and past versions of the legalization bill, thanked Osienski for his efforts to tweak and strengthen the bill over time. “You’ve listened so much to so many concerns,” he said, “and you and the staff have incorporated so many of the best ideas there are for this matter.” Pending signatures, the Marijuana Control Act (HB 305) will be released from the Health Committee.

Ben Adlin, Marijuana Moment, 01/26/2022 12:55:00

Open article: https://www.marijuanamoment.net/delaware-lawmakers-approve-marijuana-legalization-bill-in-committee-vote-2/

More than a dozen Republican Wisconsin lawmakers announced on Wednesday that they are filing a bill to legalize medical marijuana in the state. Sen. Mary Felzkowski (R) and Rep. Patrick Snyder (R) are leading the bicameral effort, though advocates are already skeptical considering how the GOP legislature has historically resisted and blocked cannabis reform. On Tuesday, for example, the Senate passed a bill to increase penalties for people who use butane to extract marijuana resin, and GOP members also shot down an amendment to the measure that would have legalized adult-use cannabis. The Republican-led medical cannabis legislation is also fairly restrictive, as it prohibits smokable marijuana products and doesn’t allow patients to grow cannabis for personal use. Patients could only obtain cannabis preparations in the form of oils, pills, tinctures or topicals. What it would do is allow doctors to issue medical cannabis recommendations to patients with one of eight conditions, including cancer, seizure disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and multiple sclerosis. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has expressed support for medical cannabis reform, and the lead Senate sponsor said at Wednesday’s press conference that Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R) is “more than willing” to hold a hearing on the proposal. Under the bill, a medical marijuana regulatory commission would be established through the Department of Revenue to promulgate rules for the program in consultation with a medical cannabis advisory board. The commission could add more qualifying conditions.

Kyle Jaeger, Marijuana Moment, 01/26/2022 13:12:00

Open article: https://www.marijuanamoment.net/wisconsin-republicans-announce-limited-medical-marijuana-legalization-bill/

South Carolina’s Senate kicked off debate on a medical marijuana bill on Wednesday, marking the first time in the Republican sponsor’s eight-year legalization effort that his legislation has made it to the chamber floor. The body is expected to hold several full legislative days’ worth of discussion on the measure before taking a vote on it. The Compassionate Care Act was prefilled in late 2020 and passed out of the Senate Medical Affairs Committee last March, but a lone senator blocked it from reaching the chamber floor in 2021. Since then, the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Tom Davis (R), has redoubled his efforts to get the bill across the finish line. “What I’ve attempted to do over the last several months is make the intellectual argument,” Davis said, “make the argument based on logic, make the argument based on the law, make the argument based on what these empirical studies show.” Davis spent much of Wednesday’s floor session answering questions from critics who appeared to have little understanding of medical marijuana programs in other states. He emphasized that the new program would be relatively limited in scope, forbidding patients from smoking or even possessing the plant form of marijuana and restricting qualifying conditions to only those that evidence shows cannabis can help.

Ben Adlin, Marijuana Moment, 01/26/2022 16:05:00

Open article: https://www.marijuanamoment.net/south-carolina-senate-begins-long-anticipated-medical-marijuana-debate/