Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam, left, talks with US Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack and audience members during a town hall meeting on how to deal with the opioid addiction in Appalachia on Thursday, June 30, 2016 at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center on in Abingdon, VA. (SAUL YOUNG/NEWS SENTINEL)

Tom Vilsack, US Secretary of Agriculture talks about opioid addiction during a town hall meeting with Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam and Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center on Thursday, June 30, 2016 in Abingdon, VA.(SAUL YOUNG/NEWS SENTINEL)

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Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Darinka Mileusnic-Polchan speaks as the Regional Forensic Center released its 2010-2015 Drug-related Death Report for Knox And Anderson Counties Monday, August 15, 2016 in the small assembly room at the City-County Building. (MICHAEL PATRICK/NEWS SENTINEL)

Dr. Amy Hawes, assistant medical examiner, explains a portion of the Regional Forensic Center's 2010-2015 Drug-related Death Report for Knox And Anderson Counties on Monday, Aug. 15, 2016, in the Small Assembly Room at the City County Building. (MICHAEL PATRICK/NEWS SENTINEL)

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Tennessee looks at making naloxone, an easy-to-administer drug that can reverse the effects of opioid drug overdoses, widely available without a prescription. But will over-reliance on the medication be a long-term side effect?

[photo] Thomas Clemons instructs people visiting a Baltimore needle exchange van on how to use naloxone to reverse heroin overdoses. More and more states, including Tennessee, are looking at the easy-to-administer drug as a way to stem increasing opioid overdose deaths.(Photo: Amy Davis/File)

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NASHVILLE - Medical marijuana will again become a topic of discussion and legislation during the 2017 legislative session.

An announcement from the House Republican Caucus on Friday said an official announcement will come next week from state Rep. Jeremy Faison, R-Cosby, and Sen. Steve Dickerson, RNashville, who are planning to introduce legislation about medical marijuana.

Medical marijuana has been a popular discussion within the legislature in recent years, and support from both parties has been steadily growing. Details about the legislation were not immediately clear.

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NASHVILLE - Willie Nelson's famous habit of smoking marijuana is not seen as a badge of outlaw courage here anymore, so much as the frivolous foible of an eccentric uncle. A popular FM station disgorging the Boomer rock hits of yesteryear calls itself Hippie Radio 94.5; one of its sponsors is a smoke shop that incessantly hawks glass pipes and detox kits. Even mainstream country acts mention smoking marijuana now and again among the litany of acceptable American pastimes.

So perhaps it is not surprising as much as telling that this city, which residents often refer to as the Buckle of the Bible Belt, may be on the cusp of joining the long roster of American cities, including New York, that have decriminalized the stuff.

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"Your libertarian streak is showing."

That's what one of my friends said earlier this week when I told him what I planned on writing about today. Well, sure, I may harbor libertarian sentiments, but it seems lately that folks at multiple points across the political spectrum are willing to consider a recalibration of existing marijuana laws.

The days of fearing "reefer madness" are waning. Yes, even in Tennessee.

Playing the role of bellwether on this opinion shift is the Nashville Metro Council, which voted 32-4 on Tuesday to move a marijuana decriminalization bill forward. Now it heads to committee phase, where its nuances will be discussed more thoroughly for further votes.

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Everyone seems suddenly concerned about drug use and drug addiction. After years of losing the "War on Drugs," many are trying new approaches. An example is the police chief who has set up a voluntary program whereby users and addicts can hand in their drugs and agree to submit to treatment. No criminal charges are made. The humanity of the program is captured in the insistence the word "junkie" will never be used.

So what's going on with the chief and his program? Obviously he has plenty of firsthand contact with countless users/addicts. He knows real progress is not in a jail cell but in medical and or psychiatric treatment.

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Did you know that Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence on paper made from hemp? Or that Christopher Columbus used hemp ropes and sails on his ships?

Van Gogh and Rembrandt painted on hemp canvas, and until the early 1800s, most legal tender in the Americas was made from cannabis hemp. Maps, Bibles, log books and clothes have been made in part from hemp. It's been around since at least 8000 B.C. We know this because the oldest relic of human history dates from that time.

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Congress and President Obama are under pressure to reschedule marijuana. While rescheduling makes sense, it doesn't solve the state/federal conflict over marijuana (descheduling would be better). But more important, it wouldn't fix the broken scheduling system. Ideally, marijuana reform should be part of a broader bill rewriting the Controlled Substances Act.

The Controlled Substances Act created a five-category scheduling system for most legal and illegal drugs (although alcohol and tobacco were notably omitted). Depending on what category a drug is in, the drug is either subject to varying degrees of regulation and control (Schedules II through V) - or prohibited, otherwise unregulated and left to criminals to manufacture and distribute (Schedule I). The scheduling of various drugs was decided largely by Congress and absent a scientific process - with some strange results.

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In six months, California will join Maine, Nevada and probably a few other states in deciding whether to legalize large-scale commercial production of marijuana. Residents will be inundated with wild claims about the promises and pitfalls of these initiatives.

You will hear debates about government revenue, criminal justice benefits, the environment and the effect of legalization on Mexican drug-trafficking cartels. Public health conversations may prove especially contentious. Some will claim that legalization will constitute a net gain for health. Others will say the exact opposite.

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Since 1970, when President Richard Nixon signed the Controlled Substances Act, marijuana has been a Schedule I drug. Congress placed it in the most restrictive category of psychoactive substances, those with no currently accepted medical value and a high potential for abuse or dependence. The upshot was a renewed ban on marijuana, except for highly restricted research purposes.

I say renewed because Congress first prohibited marijuana use for non-industrial purposes in 1937. The Schedule I designation ratified the status quo, with one notable exception: The 1970 CSA in fact reduced federal penalties for cannabis possession, a bit of Nixon-era liberality few recall.

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There are rumors that the federal government may soon lift its ban on marijuana, but that wouldn't end marijuana prohibitions in the United States. This incongruity is the result of federalism: the ability of each jurisdiction - the federal government and every state - to maintain its own laws as to which drugs are illegal and which are not.

Completely legalizing marijuana in the United States would require the actions of both the federal government and every state government. If the federal government repealed its criminal prohibition of marijuana or rescheduled the drug under federal law, that would not change state laws that forbid its possession or sale. Likewise, state governments can repeal their marijuana laws, in whole or in part, but that does not change federal law.

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H.R. 4378 Addresses the Need to Provide Treatment Facilities for Those Already Bound by Addiction.

Education and Prevention Are Imperative in Fighting the Epidemic, but Don't Work by Themselves. the Economic Advantage of Treating Addicts Is Huge, When Factoring in Health Care and Judicial Costs.

Since Nancy Reagan first spoke the familiar words "Just say no" in 1982, this country has been engaged in a war on drugs that to some seems unwinnable. There is currently a piece of legislation in Congress that takes a different approach to the matter. Rather than solely focusing on prevention of substance abuse, the Access to Substance Abuse Treatment Act of 2016 (H.R. 4378) addresses the overwhelming need to provide treatment facilities for those already bound by the chains of addiction to heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, ecstasy) and phencyclidine (PCP).

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A bill that would have allowed Tennesseans to weigh in on whether to decriminalize possession of low-level amounts of marijuana has failed in the Legislature. The Senate Judiciary Committee killed the proposal April 12.

The measure, which was sponsored by Memphis Democrats Antonio Parkinson and Sara Kyle, would not have legalized marijuana possession. Instead, it would have allowed voters to make their opinion known on whether police should arrest people in possession of one ounce of marijuana or less or give them a warning instead.

The proposal would have allowed Metro governments or municipalities with their own police departments to put the question on whether to arrest or warn to voters during a normal election. The results of the election would be advisory only.

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If "reason and honesty" were part of the public discourse regarding cannabis (marijuana) prohibition (Letter: "Marijuana misinformation," by Bob Alley, April 3, 2016), it would never have been orchestrated from the beginning.

Historically, its existence is due to racism, greed and the omission of science.

It's truly mistaken to claim, "Medical science has access to drugs that provide more relief with less damage than does pot," since cannabis often competes with opiates, which are responsible for an epidemic of addiction and death rates in America. Scientifically, cannabis is safer than aspirin and less addictive than coffee.

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Re: "Culture of healing needed to battle painkiller addiction," by David Plazas, April 8.

In response to your article, I would like to express how strongly I agree that our culture relies entirely too much on painkillers.

Recently my stepfather had a neck surgery, and as expected, he was in a considerable amount of pain after the procedure. After being prescribed 60 Percocet pills, he took a total of five. When asked why, this was what he said: "I was more scared of being addicted to the painkillers than I was of the pain."

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Having read your articles on overdose and abuse of opioids, I had to wonder your aim in these reports and to notice that your advertisers were rehab and insurance companies.

To everyone who has lost a loved one to overdose, my sympathy, but to state that opioids are not an effective means of pain management for chronic pain is inconceivable. For the help that I experience through them, it is an oasis in an otherwise consistent sea of hurt.

Having lived through the 1980s and 1990s of toughing it out and taking an aspirin, suddenly pain was a concern I dealt with.

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A former corrections officer was sentenced to one year plus one day in prison and an inmate was sentenced to 30 months in prison for a scheme to smuggle marijuana into the Federal Correctional Institution in Memphis, the office of U.S. Attorney Edward L. Stanton III said Monday.

The corrections officer, Keair Kemp, 33, of Horn Lake, and inmate Travonte Johnson, 34, of Millington, planned last year to smuggle the drug into the prison, according to a news release.

"In exchange for cash, Kemp agreed to unlawfully carry marijuana into the prison and deliver it to Johnson, thus violating his official duties as a correctional officer," Stanton's spokesman, Louis Goggans, said in the release.

Kemp pleaded guilty in December 2015 to one count of accepting a bribe, and Johnson pleaded guilty in January to one count of offering a bribe to a public official, Goggans said.

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Re: "Cannabis prohibition does more harm than good," by Cecily Friday Shamim, and "Patients deserve access to medical marijuana," by Allison Barker Watson, Sunday Insight, March 27.

Please be more objective and honest in your selection of guest editorial writers than your March 27 "Point/Counterpoint," which contained two letters from pot lobbyists who used emotion rather than science to encourage our society toward addiction and brain damage.

Google: "Harvard Pot Study" to learn of the long-term damage in casual pot users to "...the nucleus accumbens and the amygdala - key regions for emotion and motivation, and associated with addiction."

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Former first lady Nancy Reagan hadn't been dead for hours Sunday when the knives came out.

Her "Just Say No" to drugs campaign, one left-wing organization said, had a "disastrous legacy." Another one opined that the slogan "helped America lose the war on drugs."

"The problem was," an article on ThinkProgress.org said, "'just saying no' to drugs didn't actually work." Really? It's a simplistic statement, to be sure, but, in fact, actually just saying no to drugs works every time it is tried. Each time someone refuses an offer of drugs makes it easier to just turn down an offer the next time out. Eventually, refusing drugs - always the right thing to do - becomes ingrained.

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I'm sure Dr. Greg Elam means well (Re: "Live Drug-Free," Jan. 14), however, cannabis (marijuana) isn't a "drug" but rather a God-given plant as described on literally the very first page of the Bible.

The plant cannabis should not be compared with drugs that kill "50 people a day" since it has not killed one single person in over 5,000 years of documented medical use. That's safety on a Biblical scale.

A sane or moral argument to cage sick citizens for using cannabis doesn't exist.

Stan White, Dillon, Col. 80435

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Re: "Tennessee must get with the times on medical marijuana," by David Hairston, Dec. 13.

Regarding Mr. Hairston's article about legalizing medical marijuana, I found the logic faulty for the following reasons:

The statement that "God designed our bodies to use cannabinoids to maintain health " because cannabinoid receptors have been identified is like saying "God intends us to have cancer or diabetes because we have the genes for those."

Our bodies adapt to the environment and use the food and chemicals we put in them trying to best achieve a balance of chemicals in the brain. However, when we are out of balance in one area, the brain will seek to remedy it in another, thus the reason for using mood-altering drugs.

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States that permit qualified patients to access medical marijuana via dispensaries possess 24.8 percent lower rates of opioid addiction and overdose deaths than states where medical marijuana is illegal, according to a study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, a nonpartisan think tank.

In Tennessee in 2014, deaths from opioid overdose exceeded deaths by car accident and also exceeded deaths by gunshot.

Opioid overdose deaths in Tennessee have also increased by around 10 percent per year since 2012. It is by all accounts an epidemic. In the meantime, no deaths have been reported from marijuana overdose, and the reason is that marijuana does not shut down a person's breathing.

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Are we sure, Tennessee? Are we absolutely sure that marijuana legalization isn't in our best interest?

While not a native of this state, I am rapidly learning that highway maintenance isn't a priority here.

Now, I don't know about you, but if a citizen wants to blaze in his own home, it should be his right. Let that consumer go to his local dispensary, make his purchase and contribute (above the outrageous nearly 10 percent sales taxes) to the general fund.

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