Tennessee may be a part of the rising record of states legalizing hashish for each leisure and medical use if two newly proposed payments cross the state legislature.
Sponsored by Democratic lawmakers, the Tennessee Hashish Act (SB0809) and the Pot for Potholes Act goal to overtake the state’s hashish legal guidelines, permitting adults over 21 to own, use, and domesticate hashish whereas establishing a regulated marketplace for its manufacturing and sale.
Each payments, launched by state Sen. Jeff Yarbro (D-Nashville) and state Rep. Larry Miller (D-Memphis), together with state Sen. Heidi Campbell (D-Nashville) and state Rep. Aftyn Behn (D-Nashville), share many similarities however differ in how they allocate tax revenues generated from hashish gross sales.
Beneath the proposed laws, adults can be permitted to own as much as 60 grams of hashish, with not more than 15 grams in focus kind, and domesticate as much as 12 crops in a safe, personal space not seen to the general public. The payments additionally enable dad and mom or guardians to supply hashish to minors for medical functions, excluding smokable merchandise.
Nonetheless, public consumption, use in automobiles or watercraft, and possession on college grounds or correctional services would stay prohibited. Employers would retain the correct to implement office insurance policies prohibiting hashish use and take into account it in hiring choices, although staff and growers can be allowed to buy firearms, and hashish use wouldn’t disqualify people from leasing residential properties.
Each payments suggest a 15% state tax on hashish gross sales, with native governments licensed so as to add a further 5% tax. Nonetheless, they diverge in how the income can be allotted. The Tennessee Hashish Act directs roughly 15% of funds to state businesses for program administration, with the rest deposited into the state’s basic fund.
In distinction, the Pot for Potholes Act earmarks 75% of hashish tax income for the state freeway fund, distributes a lot of the remaining funds to Tennessee’s 95 counties, and allocates 5% to state businesses for program administration. Whereas state funds consultants haven’t but estimated the potential income from these taxes, an analogous medical hashish invoice proposed final 12 months projected annual revenues exceeding $48 million.
The laws additionally consists of provisions to manage the business manufacturing, packaging, and sale of hashish merchandise. Retail merchandise would require child-resistant packaging, show a common hashish image, and point out the whole THC content material. Moreover, the payments would legalize the possession of marijuana-related paraphernalia, comparable to water pipes, with sure exceptions.
