Two Republican lawmakers in Tennessee have introduced a comprehensive medical cannabis bill this week. The Tennesseean reports that the bill, introduced by state senator Janice Bowling and state rep. Ron Travis, would afford folks in the Volunteer State suffering from a dozen ailments legal access to medical cannabis.

The move comes on the heels of state lawmakers in Minnesota introducing a comprehensive measure calling for full legalization, and adds further momentum to what has already been a busy stretch of legalization efforts on the state and national level to open 2019. Should Tennessee pass the bill, it would become the third state, after Arkansas and Florida, to legalize medical cannabis within the Southeast region of the country.

Tennessee Medical Cannabis Is a Two-Fold Win For the State

The clear winner with passage of a medical cannabis bill would naturally be Tennesseans suffering from a range of diseases and conditions such as cancer, neurological disorders, epilepsy, and more. However, with tobacco sales across the country on a years-long downward trend, farmers replacing their tobacco with fields of cannabis would stand to benefit as well. Tennessee, much like its northerly neighbor Kentucky, has a large swath of its agricultural production dominated by tobacco farming. Cannabis farming, while not a perfect cure-all for all that ails farming, would provide a new and growing opportunity on farmers who have endured hardship with tobacco’s downturn.

Also not to be lost in the news is this fact, Tennessee’s state coffers could potentially benefit from medical sales as well. We just covered the exceptional medical cannabis sales that Ohio’s seen in its first two weeks of legal sales, and there’s nothing to suggest that Tennessee would not also stand to benefit from tax revenues like so many other states have.

Tennessee Legalizing Would Create A Cannabis Corridor in the Heartland

Were Tennessee to legalize medical, there’s suddenly a corridor of states, even through some of the most conservative Bible Belt regions of the U.S., that would have legalized medical cannabis on their books. Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and potentially Tennessee, all present significant electorate and political blocs in the Heartland that are recognizing the utility of legalization. To say nothing of the political clout that Florida’s burgeoning medical industry brings to the table. Nothing to sneeze at as the machinations for 2020 elections begin to turn.