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A bill to legalize medical cannabis in Tennessee failed in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Feb. 28 in a nearly party-line vote, but State Sen. Janice Bowling, the bill’s sponsor, isn’t giving up on the effort.

Senate Bill 1104, the Tennessee Medical Cannabis Act, would have legalized medical cannabis use for patients with qualifying conditions, including cancer, epilepsy, inflammatory bowel disease, opioid addiction, severe psoriasis and other ailments.

Previous moves to legalize medical cannabis in Tennessee have also failed, but Bowling, a Republican whose Senate District 16 includes Coffee, DeKalb, Franklin, Grundy, Lincoln and Warren counties, is vowing to give it another shot next year in hopes that new information about medical cannabis’ benefits will surface and sway the effort into statewide acceptance.

She said a version of a bill she presented to the Senate last year was used as a template to change the law in Alabama where medical cannabis is now allowed.

Bowling said many don’t fully realize the benefits of medical cannabis compared to opioids which are legally prescribed to patients but have led to what is classified as an epidemic. The crisis has involved a rapid increase in overuse, misuse, abuse and overdose deaths attributed to the opioid class of drugs which came into widespread use in the late 1990s.

From 1999 to 2016, it is estimated that 453,300 Americans have died from opioid misuse, according to national medical statistics. Bowling used an example from a recent year in Tennessee where 3,127 had died from opioids.

Bowling said there’s a clear difference between medical cannabis and opioids — the former isn’t addictive and no deaths have occurred because of misuse while the latter is labeled for its addictive and deadly track record.

She added that medical cannabis is safe and would have prevented many opioid deaths if the option would have been allowed in Tennessee.

Bowling said concerns about federal law overriding state law concerning medical cannabis became moot with the Rohrabacher–Farr amendment, passed by Congress in 2014.

In response to increased raids on medical-cannabis providers, Congress passed the amendment to prohibit federal prosecution of individuals acting in accordance with state medical-cannabis laws.

The amendment passed the House by a 219–189 vote in May 2014 and was signed into law in December as part of an omnibus spending bill.

It was renewed following a 242–186 House vote in 2015 and has since been included in a long series of spending bills approved by Congress.

Bowling said that through SB 1104, if it had been approved, medical cannabis in Tennessee would be grown in the state and distributed solely within its borders.

She said its distribution would be through “intrastate” means as opposed to “interstate” where cannabis crosses state lines.

Bowling said having Tennessee’s medical cannabis being managed solely within the state would ensure greater control over the safety of the substance because the state could more closely regulate it.

She added that such close control would make it extremely difficult to lace medical cannabis with other substances that have proven to be detrimental.

Bowling said she is optimistic further research will clarify why legalizing medical cannabis in Tennessee would benefit many residents who are facing difficult medical situations and would provide them with a safe alternative to help them deal with their conditions.

Bowling said a statewide poll has revealed that about 85 percent of Tennesseans are in favor of legalizing medical cannabis, and continuing to delay its legalization is penalizing those who would benefit from it if it were available.