GOP medical marijuana bill for Tennessee delayed until next year

The Senate health committee decided to delay action on a GOP-backed medical marijuana bill for Tennessee.

A Republican-backed effort to legalize marijuana for limited medicinal purposes in Tennessee is officially dead for the year.

The Senate Health and Welfare Committee decided to delay action on the proposal from Nashville GOP Sen. Steve Dickerson until 2016.

Chairman Rusty Crowe said there wasn't enough time to fully discuss the pros and cons of the bill. He said he'd create a summer study commission to look at the bill.

Dickerson didn't seem happy with the decision, but said he deferred to Crowe's opinion.

"I believe this is a conservative bill; it's equally based in compassion and science," Dickerson, an anesthesiologist, told the committee.

"Let us not criminalize the sickest among us, but rather I would encourage you to join me in allowing them to have access to this medication."

The move to delay...

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URL: 
http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2015/04/08/senate-committee-takes-up-gop-medical-marijuana-bill/25462847/