Pubdate: Sun, 05 Jan 2014 Source: Chattanooga Times Free Press (TN) Copyright: 2014 Knoxville News Sentinel Contact: http://www.timesfreepress.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/992 Note: Paper does not publish LTE's outside its circulation area Author: Tom Humphrey, Knoxville News Sentinel TENNESSEE BILL URGES MEDICAL MARIJUANA NASHVILLE - A Democratic legislator has filed a bill for the upcoming legislative session that would authorize prescription sales of marijuana for medicinal purposes in Tennessee under somewhat stringent regulations. "It's just simply a matter of being rational and compassionate," said Rep. Sherry Jones, D-Nashville, sponsor of HB1385. "It would apply to only the most severely debilitated people ... children suffering a hundred [epileptic] seizures a day, people on chemotherapy, people with multiple sclerosis ... people with a plethora of diseases" who now must either leave the state to get marijuana or make their purchases illegally. Tennessee allowed marijuana by prescription under state law for a period in the 1980s, but that law was repealed, and attempts to revive it have died in legislative committees since - most recently in 2012. But Jones and Doak Patton, president of the National Organization for Marijuana Legalization in Tennessee, say times might have changed in the state because of developments on the national front. They said the push could be seen as parallel - or a juxtaposition - to the ongoing push toward allowing the sale of wine in grocery stores, wherein expanded sales of an alcoholic beverage for consumer convenience are sought. "I think anybody would tell you alcohol is much worse than marijuana," Jones said. "If you think alcohol should be legal, then you would think that for sure medical marijuana should be legal." Twenty-one other states allow marijuana sales for medical purposes, and Colorado gained national attention by authorizing sales for recreational purposes, effective on New Year's Day. A few other states have eliminated or minimized criminal penalties for simple possession, but Tennessee law makes possession or sale of pot a crime. Jones' bill, which she says was drafted by Bernie Ellis, a longtime champion of medical marijuana once convicted of providing the drug without charge to individuals with medical problems, would allow prescriptions only to those suffering from a "qualifying medical condition," who would have to be certified by a physician and pay a $25 registration fee. Such patients would get a special card that would allow qualifying pharmacies - there would be a procedure for getting qualified - to provide the drug. The bill has a long list of qualifying conditions including cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, HIV and AIDS, hepatitis C, Lou Gehrig's disease, Crohn's disease, post-traumatic stress disorder or Alzheimer's disease - and a catchall adding "any other medical condition or its treatment as certified or prescribed by practitioners and approved by the [state] health department." The last medical marijuana bill was sponsored by former Rep. Jeanne Richardson and former state Sen. Beverly Marrero, both Memphis Democrats. Both said at the time they were told privately by several Republican legislators that they were supportive of the concept, but feared negative reaction from primary opponents or the public to embracing any sort of legalized marijuana. The bill died in committees, and Richardson and Marrero lost bids for re-election in 2012 after Republican-controlled redistricting left them running against fellow Democrats. In recent weeks, Tennessee media have given the issue some attention. WSMV-TV of Nashville, for example, reported on a family moving from the Nashville area to Colorado so a child with horrific seizures could have access to the cannabis-based drug they believed they needed, while Johnson City Press columnist Robert Houk suggested that, politically, Democrats should offer such legislation as a means of contrasting themselves with Republicans. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom