Proponents of medical marijuana launched their next legislative effort Thursday with an attempt to convince law enforcement officials from across the state not to oppose legal dispensaries selling cannabis products to sick Tennesseans.

Sen. Janice Bowling, R-Tullahoma, said she intends to introduce a bill in the coming months that would create a state government infrastructure to issue marijuana cards and regulate the sale of marijuana vapes, edibles and non-smokable products.

The legislation will be similar to a robust medical marijuana amendment that was drafted last year but never introduced due to a lack of political support. If this year's bill is going to succeed where others have failed, it needs some support — or at least less opposition — from police chiefs, sheriffs and state law enforcement officials, Bowling said.

“We wouldn’t have had this meeting had we not needed their support and desired their support," Bowling said. “I hope we get their support for their sake, as well as ours, because I was once where they are. I know, if they will read the research and they will study, they will have a different view.”

The symposium held Thursday was attended by representatives of the Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police, Tennessee Sheriffs' Association and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Tommy Farmer, who leads TBI’s drug division, said he was “here to listen” but declined to comment on the agency's position on the issue.

Marijuana still outlawed by the feds

Other law enforcement officials said they weren’t opposed to sick people getting medical marijuana products, but they remained concerned about the legal conundrum of permitting the sale of marijuana while the drug remained outlawed at the federal level.

Currently, federal law classifies marijuana as seriously as heroin, although federal officials have largely stopped enforcing these laws in states with legal dispensaries.

“We aren’t opposed to anybody getting help …” said Franklin County Sheriff Tim Fuller during the meeting Thursday. “I don’t fear dying. I don’t fear anything but being locked up, in jail, for ignoring — there are federal grand juries, you know that.”

The keynote speaker at the Thursday meeting was Alabama state Rep. Mike Ball, a conservative Alabama lawmaker and former law enforcement officer who said his mind was once “set in concrete” against medical marijuana.

Ball said he was compelled to reconsider by stories of sick children who could have benefited from marijuana and CBD products. He is now among the biggest advocates for medical marijuana in the Alabama legislature.

“I fought the evidence as long as I could,” Ball said. “Politics is about doing what looks right, and ethics is about doing what is right. And when those two conflict, which do you pick?”

Medical marijuana legal in most states

Currently, Tennessee is among a dwindling number of states where marijuana has been neither decriminalized nor legalized for medical or recreational use.

Thirty-three states, Washington, D.C., and four U.S. territories have approved some form of medical marijuana program, according to the National Conference for State Legislatures. At least 14 states and territories have approved recreational use for adults.

The latest major development in marijuana legalization occurred in Illinois, which began recreational sales on Jan 1. The law allows for Tennesseans to legally buy marijuana at Illinois dispensaries, but it remains illegal to bring any marijuana products back to the Volunteer State.

A few lawmakers have tried repeatedly to introduce medical marijuana legislation in Tennessee, but the bills have been halted by conservative opposition in the General Assembly. Even if lawmakers were to pass a bill, it could be stopped by Gov. Bill Lee, who said during his 2018 campaign that he did not support medical marijuana.

The medical marijuana legislation that was drafted last year — which Bowling said would be the basis of her bill this year — created a new agricultural medicine commission to issue licenses to dispensaries and registration cards to patients. To be eligible, patients needed to be diagnosed with a qualifying condition like cancer, HIV or cerebral palsy.

This legislation had been intended to be introduced last April by Sen. Steve Dickerson, R-Nashville, another vocal advocate for medical marijuana. However, moments before Dickerson introduced the amendment, he announced he was delaying all medical marijuana bills until this year.

At the time, Dickerson said the bill did not have enough support to pass.

“You can run a bill and have it defeated, or you can keep it alive," he said. "And practically speaking, we decided to keep it alive ..."

READ MORE:Tennessee's medical marijuana bill, dead until 2020, would've OK'd vapes and edibles, but not joints

Brett Kelman is the health care reporter for The Tennessean. He can be reached at 615-259-8287 or at brett.kelman@tennessean.com. Follow him on Twitter at @brettkelman.