State News

Next year the Tennessee state legislature may take up the controversial topic of medical marijuana.  14 other states have passed or are considering legislation legalizing cannabis for medical use only, despite federal law prohibiting use for any reason.  The House Health and Human Resources Committee have decided to conduct an extensive collaborative study by state agriculture, health, and law enforcement officials to be delivered to them no later than February 15th of next year.

The issue came out when state Representative Jeanne Richardson, a Democrat from Memphis, proposed a bill that allows people suffering from serious illnesses to apply for and receive prescriptions for the plant.  

An estimated 25,000 Tennesseans already use cannabis illegally to relieve pain and symptoms of their chronic diseases, so the bill would legalize and regulate that usage. Licensed farmers and pharmacies would make the usage safer for everyone involved, as these chronically ill patients would no longer have to turn to the black market for what they honestly consider to be medicine.  

Two weeks of debate resolved with the decision to conduct an extensive study before making a final decision. Many in the legislature are hesitant to enact such legislation. Representative Joey Hensley, a Republican from Hohenwald, is a doctor concerned that we don’t know enough about dosage levels or how to prescribe it, one reason why a study needs to be done.  It’s status as an illegal drug has prevented doctors from knowing anything about dosage.

Others are simply skittish because cannabis has been used for so long in the United States as a purely recreational drug.  No one wants to look heartless in the face of chronically ill patients asking for legal relief, but the plant has been embedded into the cultural consciousness for a long time as something bad and harmful.  

That kind of cultural programming is hard to disengage, despite mountains of evidence that the plant has been safely used for literally thousands of years by cultures around the world as a pain reliever. It is very difficult if not impossible to find any verifiable proof of a death directly linked to cannabis use in any records, and with such a long history of use, (over 5,000 years) you would think you would find something.

The only reports of "death by cannabis" were found, upon further examination, to really be caused by other drugs, like heroin, used in conjunction with cannabis. This is a safety record that even medicine cabinet staples like Aspirin (causing approximately 7,000 deaths a year in the United States alone) cannot match.  

Using “it’s bad because it’s illegal” as a justification for keeping a product illegal is a form of circular reasoning destructive to the collective good.   

Most laws are intended to protect and help individuals and society, but sometimes laws are enacted that do not serve such purposes.  The confusion between Hemp and Marijuana and the subsequent ban on Hemp is a great example.   

Though the two plants are members of the same species, they have been bred to achieve different ends, and industrial hemp does not contain enough tetrahydrocannabinol to make it a psychoactive substance. Simply put, it is impossible to get a “high” from Hemp, yet it is still illegal.  

Hemp has some of the strongest natural fibers known to man and was used by our forefathers for rope, canvas, shoes, paper, and countless other products.  It is simply a wonderful industrial material that for some reason is banned in most of the United States.  It’s like banning cotton, it simply doesn’t make any sense.  

It will always be difficult for elected officials to legalize something that some of their constituents still believe is harmful because they risk losing votes. The public needs unbiased education free from propagandistic viewpoints about the plant. Public opinion will have to change before representatives will have the courage to change legislation.  

According government investigators, a medical helicopter pilot was trying to out run an upcoming thunderstorm before crashing in Tennessee, killing himself and two nurses.
 

The National Transportation Safety Board released a preliminary report monday that did not include a ruling on the March 25 crash.
 

The helicopter crashed into a Haywood County field near US Highway 70 around 55 miles northeast of Memphis. It was operated by Hospital Wing, and was en route to return to bae in Brownsville around 6am on March 25.
 

Another company held flights, due to weather, around the same time.
 

More Status Quo for Tennessee Professors

While everyone has felt a pinch from the current economy, few have felt it as tightly as universities. Tennessee professors got a bit more bad news regarding their paychecks.

The American Association of University Professors published a new report that claims 2009 to have the worst salaries for professors in the last 50 years. Over 2008, professorial salaries were unable to keep up with inflation and increased by only 1.2 percent. This was while many schools suffered massive budget cuts and funding losses. Universities reacted by buying out senior staff members, bringing on non-tenured and part time teachers, and freezing wages.

Coleman McGinnis, director of government relations or the Tennessee conference of the AAUP and a retired political science professor at TSU said, "When you talk about faculty salaries, Tennessee is rapidly racing to the bottom."

Most people think that professors receive a decent salary, a comfortable life, and a job for life if they are granted their tenure. In sort, people think they have it easy. Coleman said, “there's a public perception that we're underworked and overpaid."

Most professors are teaching five courses, doing their own independent research, advising students, and going to committee meetings. Since all of the budget cuts, staffing has been slashed, classes increased in size, and a lot more adjunct, part-time professors replace full-time teachers for a fraction of the cost and benefits.

The Tennessee Board of Regents has not passed a cost-of-living increase for faculty in two years, and it is likely to be another two years before another can be considered, says Dale Sims, TBR vice chancellor for business and finance.

Sims said, “We are aware that keeping, retaining and trying to recruit quality faculty is key to what we do.” The TBR manages most of the public unversities and community colleges in the Middle Tennessee area. "We will be looking for ways over time to ensure that we are competitive.”

Wild hogs are running rampant in Tennessee. It sounds like the beginning of a joke, but this is a serious matter, as feral hogs cause a multitude of problems when their population gets out of control.

Their habit of “rooting,” involves digging their snouts into the ground from 2 to 8 inches in search of food. This can damage acres of crops very quickly. They eat the crops too, as their omnivorous nature allows them to eat just about anything that crosses their paths and their gluttonous nature ensures they will. 

Their rapid rate of reproduction is a serious concern as well. Females begin breeding as early as six months old, and often have one or two litters of four to ten babies every year. This means that the population often doubles every four months.  This is a growing problem in various parts of the United States but is particularly troublesome in Tennessee, where they have spread from the mountains down into Sumner and Williamson counties.

Federal wildlife officials are going to start another airborne eradication effort, shooting the hogs from helicopters. They launched similar efforts in 2004 and 2009.