Memphis Light, Gas and Water’s (MLGW) “Comparative Rates Survey” showed that the company’s combined rates are among the lowest in the country.
“Providing our customers great value through affordable rates, along with immediate improvements to reliability and customer service are important parts of earning our customers’ business.” said MLGW president and CEO Doug McGowen
According to MLGW, this survey compares Memphis’ combined electric, gas, and water utility rates to 39 other cities in the country that were “geographically close to Memphis, as well as utilities that are similar in size to MLGW.” Among those cities were Atlanta, Georgia, Jackson, Mississippi, Nashville, Tennessee, and Houston, Texas.
The survey stated that some of the guidelines used in providing utility figures were calculations based on monthly consumption and seasonal rates when applicable. Factors such as special early payment discounts and time differentiated rates were excluded.
Memphis ranked number-one in “typical residential winter bills,” which measured what a homeowner would pay for 1,000 kWh of electricity, 200 CCF of natural gas, and 10 CCF, which came in at $253.83. The second ranked city, St. Louis, Missouri had a cost of $356.49.
For residential electric bills, MLGW ranked eighth among the other cities surveyed. This was measured in kilowatts per hour, which equals ten 100-watt light bulbs staying on for an hour. The cost of 1,000 kWh for MLGW was totaled at $115.98, with the number-one ranking, St. Louis’ Ameren Missouri costing $95.96.
In terms of natural gas, Memphis and MLGW ranked first in residential gas bills and general service gas bills. The company ranked third for residential water bills.
The Memphis-Shelby County Schools board will revise its timeline to complete the superintendent search. The process is paused, and the board is unlikely to meet its initial deadlines. Ariel Cobbert for Chalkbea
The search for a new leader for Memphis-Shelby County Schools looks like it won’t be done anytime soon.
The school board, which met Tuesday amid sharp divisions over how to complete the selection of the district’s next superintendent, is scheduled to meet again on Friday to discuss a revised timeline for the search.
Board member Joyce Dorse-Coleman, who is now co-leading the search with Stephanie Love, said the continued pause through the final weeks of the school year would allow the board to focus on its budget, student testing, and graduations, and to address community concerns about the search process.
“I emphasize that we are not stopping the search for superintendent,” Dorse-Coleman said.
The board had once planned to have a successor to former Superintendent Joris Ray chosen by the spring and on the job this summer, before the start of the 2023-24 school year. But it is unlikely to meet those deadlines.
The search got derailed last month, when several board members raised objections about how the process was wrapping up, just as the outside search firm presented its initial slate of finalists. Board Chair Althea Greene decided to halt the process while board members ironed out their differences.
That decision led to a shuffling of the top contenders, but none of the remaining candidates have been publicly interviewed, and no interviews have been scheduled before the board and the public.
The process so far has left three top contenders remaining: Carlton Jenkins of Madison, Wisconsin; Angela Whitelaw, Memphis’ top academic official; and the district’s interim superintendent, Toni Williams. At least two other leading candidates withdrew from consideration and accepted other jobs.
The board was set to meet this week to try to forge agreement on how to restart the process and resolve other key questions, including whether Williams, the district’s former finance chief, meets the minimum qualifications for the superintendent job.
Those items are likely to be discussed during the retreat Friday, though no agenda has been posted.
Board member Michelle McKissack said Tuesday that she believed candidate interviews should go ahead, but that she supported the decision to focus on the district’s students at the end of the year.
No other board member spoke about the decision Tuesday, and the board did not hold a vote on pausing the search, even though a search update was listed as an action item on the board agenda. (Board members Amber Huett-Garcia and Kevin Woods did not attend the meeting.)
It’s the third time since the formation of the merged Memphis-Shelby County district that a superintendent search has been interrupted. The two previous superintendents, Ray and predecessor Dorsey Hopson, were elevated as internal appointments after national searches were quickly called off. The current process is the first time a national search has progressed so far for the combined district.
Laura Testino covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Laura at LTestino@chalkbeat.org.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
• Nothing went right for a carjacker in East Memphis, Tennessee, on March 10, WREG-TV reported. An unnamed 22-year-old victim pulled into his own driveway that night, only to have a man yank the driver’s door open and point a gun at him. He asked for the victim’s wallet and keys to the 2006 Honda Element, then tried to back out of the driveway, but as he did so, he rolled down the window. That’s when the victim noticed the thief’s gun didn’t have a barrel, so he reached in and punched the carjacker in the face, causing the car to clip the side of the house and run into a pole. The carjacker jumped out and ran away; police were able to gather prints from the car and a recovered phone, but no arrests have been made. [WREG, 3/13/2023]
• As authorities in Gainesville, Georgia, searched the home of 75-year-old Alan Neil Thur on March 14 after receiving a tip that Thur had child pornography on his computer, Thur sat at his computer … “viewing five images of child pornography,” Hall County Sheriff’s deputies wrote in a report. WSB-TV reported that Thur was charged with seven counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and booked into the county jail. [WSB, 3/16/2023]
Oh, Canada
Fans of our favorite rude gesture, rejoice! Flipping the bird is a protected, “God-given” right in Canada, NPR reported, after Judge Dennis Galiatsatos ruled on Feb. 24 that “offending someone is not a crime.” The decision stemmed from a court case between two unneighborly neighbors in a Montreal suburb. “The complainants are free to clutch their pearls in the face of such an insult,” Galiatsatos said. “However, the police department and the 911 dispatching service have more important priorities to address.” [NPR, 3/10/2023]
Suspicions Confirmed
On March 20, police officers were called to a home in Mill Creek, Washington, on a report of items stolen from the house, Fox13-TV reported. As they investigated, they discovered someone was living in the home’s upstairs loft — with a bed, drug paraphernalia, and half-eaten food. The oblivious homeowners did say they had noticed the smell of cigarette smoke. Police suggested the homeowners wait until the person returned, and it didn’t take long: On March 21, they arrested Daniel Tomoiaga, 24. In his possession, they found the stolen items, along with meth and fentanyl. No word on how long he’d been staying at the home. [Fox13, 3/23/2023]
The Tech Revolution
Artificial intelligence has infiltrated television news in China, Oddity Central reported. Ren Xiaorong, a virtual news anchor, was introduced on March 12 to viewers of People’s Daily. “For 365 days, 24 hours, I will be reporting the news for the whole year, round the clock, without rest,” (Redundant) Ren told viewers. “Whether at news sites or back in the studio, you will always see me.” She has absorbed the talents of “thousands of news anchors” and will continue to evolve based on feedback. Ren can answer many questions, but her answers are all within the parameters of the Chinese Communist Party’s rhetoric. [Oddity Central, 3/17/2023]
Clothing Optional
In the early 2000s, Joseph DeRuvo Jr. of Norwalk, Connecticut, had developed painful bunions on his feet, and his doctor suggested surgery to remove them, The New York Times reported. While awaiting his operation, he started going barefoot, and he soon realized his feet felt much better. “The tactile feedback just kind of makes everything else going on feel a little bit smoother,” he said. Now 59 years old, DeRuvo has been barefoot for two decades, and he says navigating weather and terrain is easier than navigating people. He is sometimes asked to leave a business and on occasion, he fights back. “If I’m feeling feisty,” he said. His wife added, “We get thrown out of a lot of places.” But his shoelessness contributes to a mindful life: “I pay attention to every single step I take,” DeRuvo said. [New York Times, 3/7/2023]
News of the Weird is now a podcast on all major platforms! To find out more, visit newsoftheweirdpodcast.com.
My 30-somethingth time seeing 311 live;
thanks, BSMF! (Photo: Shara Clark)
There was something in the air last weekend in Downtown Memphis, and it wasn’t just the smell of funnel cakes frying or Pronto Pups roasting under heat lamps. It was the magic of Beale Street Music Festival — and its long-awaited return to Tom Lee Park. The weather was about as nice as could be for the fest’s three-day stretch — sun shining, a warm breeze, and, to the surprise of literally everyone, no rain. This was not Memphis in Mud. (And the new park was pretty cool, too.) Welcome back, everyone.
My earliest Beale Street Music Fest memory is of crowd-surfing for the first time at the 1998 Green Day show. I was a teenager, and, appropriate for the time — but not so much for a festival — was sporting a pair of clunky Doc Martens. My friends hyped me up, and some friendly fest-goers agreed to hoist little ol’ me into the crowd. I distinctly recall clocking an unsuspecting fan upside the head with a flailing boot (oops) and having a few creeps grope my nethers as I floated across strangers’ outstretched arms (eek). I also vaguely remember frontman Billie Joe Armstrong stripping down to leopard print skivvies and hollering profanities (punk rock!) — and supposedly getting banned from the fest forevermore.
Every year since, I’ve attended BSMF religiously. I’ve always lived for concerts, chasing my most-loved bands across the country from the time I had a car and a job. And festivals arguably offer the best of that world, a chance to fully immerse yourself in live music, from familiar favorites to new-to-you acts. The endurance test of it all just adds to the experience.
While the memories are somewhat beer-soaked, there are standout BSMF moments that have stuck with me. In 2000, our crew stood through the entirety of a Bryan Adams set to get close to the stage for Foo Fighters, only for me to be overheating — and stepping not on the ground but on other peoples’ feet, crammed in like canned sardines — once they started playing. As I scoured the area for an escape route through the crowd, the only way out, it seemed, was up and over, and a few fine audience members once again hurled me into strange hands that shuffled me over the security railing to safety. In 2002, Stone Temple Pilots opened with a beautiful rendition of Pink Floyd’s “Shine on You Crazy Diamond” — epic. In 2006, I saw James Brown shimmy across the stage in an electric performance, just months before his passing — iconic. There have been some stellar acts through the years, too many to name. And if you’ve ever been, you surely have your own BSMF stories to tell.
After a two-year Covid hiatus and a temporary move to Liberty Park in 2022, it was a welcome return home for those of us who’ve loved the festival all these years. Were crowds smaller? Sure. Could the lineup have been better? Depends on who you ask. All in all, though, things appeared to have gone off without a hitch. The revamped Tom Lee Park was fun to navigate, with its winding walkways, hilly areas, and fenced-off newly planted landscaping. We still got that majestic river view, the notes wafting on the wind, and the energy of thousands of fest fanatics living in the moment.
I passed crowd-surfing age long ago, but I’ll never outgrow the magic of live music, the emotive nature of it. Did I dance like no one was watching? Absolutely. Did I jump around and scream-sing along until I lost my voice? You bet. (If you saw me, I apologize for nothing.) Am I still physically recovering on Tuesday? Yep, I’m definitely not a teenager anymore. Would I do it all again next weekend if I could? No doubt.
There’s something undeniably special about Beale Street Music Festival, made more so by its home along the Mississippi River. We’re incredibly lucky to have had this event here, at our back door, for so long, bringing not just our city but people from all over the world together for a big, beautiful time.
Hope to see you there next year. I’ll be somewhere up front living my best life.
Rocket’s backstory forms the emotional core for one last adventure with James Gunn’s Guardians.
The first installment of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy foreshadowed the wacky space antics to come by opening with Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), grooving to Redbone’s “Come and Get Your Love” on a deserted planet. Volume 2 followed Baby Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) as he boogies to Electric Light Orchestra’s “Mr. Blue Sky,” blissfully unaware that his fellow Guardians are locked in combat with a giant octopus monster.
But Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 offers no such playful dance number intro from a joyful audience surrogate. Director James Gunn’s Marvel swan song (he’s now creative director for rival DC Studios) opens in darkness. A group of baby raccoons in a dirty cage hears footsteps echo from a hallway, and a silhouette emerges. All the raccoons flee from the cage door except one, his eyes wide in terror as a hand extends slowly into the cage.
That frightened face morphs into the present-day Rocket (Bradley Cooper), the anthropomorphic gunslinging raccoon (but don’t call him that) and Gunn’s preferred “secret hero” of the franchise. When the bristles on Rocket’s face come into sharp focus — the most accomplished CGI that we’ve seen in a Marvel film for quite a while — it’s clear Gunn is not interested in repeating himself.
The rage and frustration of Radiohead’s “Creep” follow Rocket in an early scene as he walks through Knowhere, the Guardians’ new HQ. His found family of oddballs are in a bad place following the events of Avengers: Endgame. A permanently drunk Quill is despondent that former teammate and love interest Gamora (Zoë Saldaña) doesn’t remember her time as a Guardian, while Nebula (Karen Gillan), Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), and Mantis (Pom Klementieff) do their best to pick up the pieces. Meanwhile, comic relief Kraglin (Sean Gunn) is joined by newcomer Cosmo the Space Dog (voiced by Maria Bakalova), cracking wise, playing cards, and trying to keep the mood up.
The early sidelining of Quill establishes that this is Rocket’s story, with frequent flashbacks to his time as a genetic experiment under the eye of the maniacal High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji), a man that harbors a twisted obsession to create the perfect being. Rocket is critically injured during an early skirmish with newcomer Adam Warlock (Will Poulter), but the crew needs the High Evolutionary’s tech to save him. From there, the story gets dark and even depressing, at one point delivering the franchise’s first “Fuck.”
Previous Guardians films have explored the core crew’s backstories, but Rocket’s tragic past has only been hinted at. Guardians has always been about fatherly trauma, whether it’s Gamora and Nebula’s years of torture under Thanos, Drax’s failure to protect his late daughter, or the revelation that Quill’s father was Ego the Living Planet. Rocket’s grueling backstory gives the movie something that’s been missing from recent Marvel films: an emotional core.
Young Rocket dreams big with his fellow experimental subjects; they’re excited to be a part of the High Evolutionary’s new world, even as they undergo grotesque, body-horror alterations. Pet lovers beware: There are some pretty brutal depictions of violence enacted upon animals in this movie.
Star-Lord’s attempts to win back Gamora provide the series’ usual semi-comic tone, and we get the requisite space shoot-outs, and even a Nathan Fillion cameo. But pathos is never far from the surface; Rocket’s journey through his trauma is always front and center. It’s a refreshing change of pace from the sanitized corporate slop that has given moviegoers superhero fatigue during the MCU’s latest phase. Gunn even manages to introduce Warlock, who is set to be a big player in future MCU films, as an organic part of this story, rather than a distraction.
Guardians Vol. 3 is the most creative Marvel film in years, a fitting end to Gunn’s time with Disney. It should serve as the template going forward, but will it? It seems unlikely super-producer Kevin Feige will afford this much creative leeway to directors with lesser reputations, and with Gunn off to DC, the MCU will probably return to the assembly line approach that’s left Phases 4 and 5 feeling stale. At least Gunn, Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, Nebula, Mantis, Groot, and especially Rocket can all go out with a bang.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Now playing Multiple locations
Congressman Steve Cohen with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week (Photo: Courtesy Steve Cohen)
We hear a lot these days about “bullet trains,” which whisk commuters from place to place with incredible speed. The train which took Memphis Congressman Steve Cohen last week from U.S. ally Poland into Kyiv, the capital of wartime Ukraine, took all of 10 hours. But the ride was surely worth it.
It was Cohen’s privilege, as ranking member of the congressional Helsinki Commission, to ride that slow train (hampered by security precautions) into harm’s way so as to present the gallant Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, with the formal support of the commission for himself and his beleaguered nation.
The Helsinki Commission is an official government body created in 1975 to support compliance with that year’s Helsinki Accords, a nonbinding agreement pledging the nations of Europe and the Americas to the pursuit of peace and detente.
Accompanied by fellow House members Joe Wilson of South Carolina and Victoria Spartz of Indiana, Cohen was ushered into the president’s office as an air raid siren blared, reminding the visitors of the potential dangers involved.
The American delegation spent an hour with Zelenskyy, who, says Cohen, was the affable and resolute figure the world has grown familiar with during Ukraine’s courageous stand against the nonstop attacks of the Russian invader.
According to Cohen, Kyiv itself, relatively unscarred, remains determined to persevere and comports itself like any other busy metropolis. He described seeing workers rebuilding a bridge that was demolished during the war’s early phase to prevent Russian access into the city.
The American group also visited suburban areas — notably Bucha, the site of widespread massacres and other atrocities by occupying Russian troops, who were later forced to withdraw. Aside from that, says Cohen, “Bucha is actually an upscale sort of place, kind of like Germantown,” but one marked by numerous mass graves.
How would the congressman rank his Ukrainian experience? “Inspiring, and right up there with anything I’ve ever done.”
• However the tangled matter of mayoral residency requirements gets resolved, and it likely will get sorted out on a May 18th hearing in the courtroom of Chancellor JoeDae Jenkins, former Mayor Willie Herenton remains unworried, insisting that, as a new online broadside of his puts it, “My residence has never changed.”
He cites an official definition by Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett of a residence as a “place where the person’s habitation is fixed and is where, during periods of absence, the person definitely intends to return.”
In Herenton’s case, that means a house on Barton Street, near LeMoyne-Owen College, an ancestral place of sorts where Herenton’s mother lived, as did the former mayor, despite his subsequent acquisition of other dwellings, including one in Collierville which he later sold.
Herenton contends that would distinguish him from two other mayoral candidates, Sheriff Floyd Bonner and NAACP president Van Turner, both of whom lived just outside Memphis before acquiring dwelling places in the city during the past year.
The issue to be determined by Jenkins is whether, as a vintage city charter maintained, a five-year prior residency is mandated for mayoral candidates or was made moot by a 1996 referendum of Memphis voters that imposed no such pre-election requirement.
Searcy, Arkansas, is now home to “central Arkansas’ first drive-thru bikini coffee shop.” Sweet Cheeks Espresso opened last month. It serves lattes, cold brew, frappes, chai tea, and Red Bull-infused drinks like the Bubble Butt and Fruity Booty. Yep, all of it made and served by women in bikinis.
It’s Gonna be May
Posted to Facebook by Mike Doughty
May’s Memphis arrival means two things: Memphis in May and Justin Timberlake memes.
NSYNC’s 2000 hit “It’s Gonna Be Me” is the genesis for the “It’s Gonna Be May” meme that blooms each year around this time. Know Your Meme says the original “May” meme was posted to a Tumblr blog in 2012. It’s still going strong 11 years later, as evidenced by the photo above posted to Facebook by Memphis musician Mike Doughty.
Tweet of the Week
Photo: State of Tennessee
In the wake of last week’s shooting at FOX13, state Representative John Gillespie (R-Memphis) seemed ready to work on some sort of gun control in a special session promised by Governor Bill Lee.
“The solution as we know is going to be a complicated one but I am willing to roll up my sleeves, work with my colleagues in Nashville and figure it out. I am here to protect my constituents and speak on behalf of all of those scared for their own safety and the safety of their families and friends. WE MUST DO BETTER AND WE MUST DO IT NOW.”
Nathan McHenry as Anatole and Katy Cotten as Natasha (Photo: D’angelo Connell Photography)
The week before I saw Playhouse on the Square’s regional debut of Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812, I was asked what the play was about. I wasn’t quite sure, having deliberately avoided finding out beforehand, as is sometimes my practice when seeing a show I’m unfamiliar with. This continued until the morning I was to attend, when a coworker read aloud a short synopsis. The words “electropop,” “opera,” and “Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace” gave me the impression it had the potential to be either really cool or a complete disaster. I’ll tell you now: It was utterly insane, and I loved it.
Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 is a sung-through musical; there is no spoken dialogue. Everything is performed in song, which can be a lot to take in for the average theatergoer. Coupled with the fact that it’s is an adaptation of Part 8 of War and Peace, you might be forgiven in expecting the effect to be too much. Instead, the show leans into its own weirdness, breaking the fourth wall before the action even begins. Performers enter through the lobby, where they mingle with the audience before the show. Almost immediately the musical makes fun of itself; in the first number, the company scatters additional programs containing a family tree with notes about each character, such as “eccentric” and “slut” (it’s tongue-in-cheek, don’t worry). The actors warn to pay attention because everybody has, like, eight names.
The set design feels like a cast member in its own right. Throughout the show, the ensemble performs in and around the audience, entering from the back of the auditorium and moving toward to stage, or utilizing the half-moon runway that goes from downstage out into the rows. A staircase curves artfully up from stage left to the balcony overhead. Scenic designer Phillip Hughen created something that lends itself to the spectacle called for by the script and also feels incredibly intimate, as if the audience were peering into the secret back room of a speakeasy or brothel.
Another unique aspect is the live music performed by an orchestra half-hidden by velvet curtains nestled upstage. The music is wild, ranging from moving operatic solos to a bouncing bass-heavy rave. At one point, the characters attend an opera-within-the-opera, which can only be described as delightfully bizarre. The note I jotted down reads, “Holy shit. This is hot.”
I’m refraining from going over the broad strokes — such as the plot — if only because I was so enamored with the details. Every actor, from the leads to the individuals of the ensemble, brought such an energy that everywhere you looked there was something interesting going on — which is an accomplishment in a musical this busy. Dave Malloy has written a play scattered with poignant vignettes. One such moment especially stood out, during a song in which an old man repeatedly asks, “Where are my glasses?” only for his daughter to remark that they are on top of his head. She then says quietly, “I disgust myself,” a moment I found incredibly relatable (from both perspectives).
While Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 probably isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, I found it a fully immersive escape from reality and a complete theater success.
Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 runs at Playhouse on the Square through May 21st.
Tennessee’s legal cannabis industry is in a sort of Wild West phase.
The frontier is fresh. The rules are loose. Peril is possible. Good folks outnumber the bad. And fortune awaits those brave enough to grab it.
But there may be a new (well, first) sheriff in town next year. His orders? Bring order to an industry now operating largely outside of government oversight by pioneers living by code if not by law.
Loose laws are evident all over the state. Look no further than the convenience store down the street or just about any truck stop along I-40. Colorful, psychedelic signs and posters promise mellow times with Delta-8 gummies, CBD vapes, and more.
The original hemp plants for those products do not have to be tested in a lab for heavy metals or pesticides. Processing facilities (that make the oil for the product) are unlicensed and not registered with the state. No license is required to sell hemp products. To make them, Tennessee companies need only register as a food manufacturing facility.
Those colorful labels on gummies and such can list a dosage (like 25 milligrams), but no one is checking that. So, it could be more, could be less, or could be nothing at all. Those labels can also say the product is for medicinal use (or anything at all) but no one is checking that either.
The products — many of which look like candy and which people typically buy because a small dose can get you high — are within a child’s grasp on store shelves. The packaging is, many times, appealing to children and can usually be opened as easily as a bag of gummy bears.
Photo: Adobe Stock | F42PIX
How did we get here?
Plenty of states were legalizing cannabis in some form before the 2018 Farm Bill. When the federal legislation legalized nationwide hemp production, many minds turned first to products like those rough-hewn pullovers from the stoner store at the mall.
But legalization opened an unexpected door. Scientists pulled hemp samples, examined them under microscopes, and found cannabinoids. These chemicals came with confusing, exotic-sounding names like Delta-8 and THC-O. But two things were not confusing. No. 1: Those chemicals found in perfectly legal hemp could produce drug-like effects in the body, similar to those in federally illegal cannabis. No. 2: People wanted that.
From there, pioneers poured into Tennessee’s new, green frontier. First, local head shops began carrying these new products, most of the time in tinctures or oils — still pretty far-out-there stuff for workaday parents who might usually have turned to a glass of wine to ease anxiety.
Then, hemp stores, CBD shops, and even upscale Delta-8 lounges popped up in strip malls everywhere, promising “legal weed” from neon signs to those who sought it out. Somewhere along the way, these products became ubiquitous, routine, as normal at the Mapco as chips and beer. Also, those workaday parents began not thinking twice about turning to the once-taboo THC to ease that anxiety.
No one locally allowed these products in the state. The Farm Bill passed and then they just sort of showed up, initially leaving lawmakers (especially conservative lawmakers leery of that wacky tobacky) scratching their heads.
The law firm Bass, Berry & Sims said on its blog, “Without any parameters in state law, Tennessee found itself with a completely unregulated product market rife with false advertising, consumer misuse, and a sustained spike of nonlethal overdoses.” The overdosing is real, especially among children.
Last year, Dr. Rebecca Bruccoleri, director of the Tennessee Poison Control Center, told Knoxville’s WBIR-TV that her team received 115 calls from people concerned about consuming Delta-8 last year — 32 of those calls concerned children under age 5. Doctors at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) saw an increase of child-related THC visits, too. Children would present to the emergency room with “excessive vomiting, seizures, altered states of consciousness, and severe depression in breathing that … led to the need for intubation and admission to the pediatric intensive care unit,” the hospital said on its blog last year.
“These edibles resemble candy, and, to young children, they probably even taste like candy,” said VUMC’s Dr. Marla Levine. “They are not stopping at one bite or a nibble. They are consuming the entire piece or possibly pieces. They have no understanding that there are drugs inside.
“The doses that are in these products vary. There is no standardization. Children are exposed to a much higher dose of the drugs leading to a dangerous and oftentimes toxic level in their systems.”
Legislators made much of these reports during this year’s session and they may have, in fact, tipped the scales on this year’s cannabis regulation bill.
The new cannabis bill
While the market here matured around new attitudes toward hemp and all of its products, regulation has been promised (if not threatened) for the Tennessee industry. It came this year.
A bill from GOP House Majority Leader Representative William Lamberth (R-Portland) opened the discussion on the state’s loose cannabis laws last year. (A previous bill from him sought to outlaw all hemp-derived products here.) Even with several committee meetings, testimony from industry leaders, and much work done behind the scenes, the bill failed but work on it continued.
The refined version of this year’s bill was passed on April 20th (*chef’s kiss*) and sent over to Tennessee Governor Bill Lee’s office last Wednesday, May 3rd. That gave him 10 days (excepting Sunday) to move on it. So, Lee has until Saturday, May 13th, to sign the bill, veto it, or let it pass without his signature.
Should the bill pass, the Tennessee Department of Agriculture (TDA) will control the state’s effort to regulate hemp products. If it does, hemp companies, retailers, and hemp consumers will find Tennessee’s Wild West frontier tamed by a man with a badge — a state employee’s ID badge.
That man’s name is Danny Sutton. He has the un-Wild-West job title of assistant commissioner of the Consumer and Industry Services Division of the TDA. It’s a regulatory division of the department that inspects and permits everything from bottled water and retail food stores to dairy farms and beekeepers.
Back in 2015 Sutton’s division of the TDA began oversight of what was then the state’s brand-new industrial hemp program, when the crop was most likely intended to make rope, concrete, and those hippy pullovers.
That changed with the Farm Bill and the discovery of those cannabinoids. The word “industrial” was all but phased out and Sutton’s team now travels the state testing hemp plants to ensure the THC levels in them are below the mandated .3 percent.
Once that testing has been done and the plants have passed inspection, the TDA is out. (If they don’t pass, the plants are legally destroyed.) Whatever happens to that legal hemp and its cannabinoids after a TDA test is up to the farmer and the market. As Sutton said, “It’s just another crop,” and it’s one that thrives here.
“I’ll be brutally honest,” Sutton told members of the Tennessee Medical Cannabis Commission (more on them later) last month. “The state of Tennessee has the perfect weather and the perfect dirt to grow pot. It’s a good crop here. It used to be one of the largest crops grown in our state, along with barley.”
The hemp regulation bill on Lee’s desk would task Sutton’s team with a new program to manage cannabis and an edible foods program (like gummies) from the plant all the way to the shelf.
Should the bill pass, the TDA will begin to register and license every company up and down the hemp supply chain from farmers, transporters, laboratories, to retailers. This is expected to be the first line of defense to root out bad actors and bootleg operations.
Each batch of cannabis would have to be tested by a third-party lab for toxins, but also for “the presence and amounts of cannabinoids.” This is important for consumers who could then trust that the 10 milligram brownie they bought actually contains THC and actually contains 10 milligrams of it. This is also expected to filter out more of those bootleg operators.
New retail stores could not be established within 1,000 feet of a K-12 public, private, or charter school. In stores that aren’t 21-and-up, all of the cannabis products would have to be behind a counter and inaccessible to customers.
No single serving of a product could contain more than 25 milligrams of any cannabinoid. Product labels would have to list dosage amounts, ingredients, possible allergens, and a nutritional fact panel.
Product containers would have to be child-resistant. Nothing about those containers or their marketing could depict or signify “characters or symbols known to appeal primarily to persons under 21.” No ingestible hemp product could be made “into the shape of an animal or cartoon character.” So long, hemp gummy bears.
At work, employers would not have to accommodate the use of hemp products or accommodate an employee working under the influence of it. Employers could also continue to “enforce a drug-free workplace” program. This means firings for positive drug tests are still on the table, and the bill does not allow for any cause of action against employers for wrongful discharge or discrimination in hemp-related firings. So you can’t sue your asshole boss because you failed a piss test, bro.
Homeowners and business owners don’t have to allow or admit guests or customers carrying hemp products or who are under the influence of them. That means if you’re carrying or high, neither your neighbor nor your local watering hole has to let you in.
Driving high? Nope. The bill outlaws operating “a motor vehicle, aircraft, motorized watercraft, or another vehicle while under the influence of a hemp-derived cannabinoid.” It says you can be prosecuted for a criminal offense related to being high on hemp and you must “submit to a breath, blood, urine, or other test to detect the presence” of the substance. However, it does not lay out penalties for getting caught.
Also, the law would restrict hemp sales to those over 21. Sell it to a minor, buy it for a minor, or get caught with it as a minor, and you’ll get popped with a Class A misdemeanor. In Tennessee, that can get you up to 11 months and 29 days in jail, fines of up to $2,500, or both.
The law also sets a bar for hemp businesses. Caught operating outside the state’s new law, owners could face a Class A misdemeanor charge, the same criminal charge for theft under $1,000.
Kelley Mathis Hess, CEO and lobbyist for the Tennessee Growers Coalition, worked with legislators on the regulation bill. She said it will, ultimately, solidify the industry here and give it some credibility. But she thinks the misdemeanor charge is a step too far.
“There are already penalties for operating a business outside of the law,” Hess said. “We don’t support other levels of criminalization when there’s already systems in place for that.”
Collin Bercier, founder and owner of Memphis-based Ounce of Hope dispensary and aquaponic farm, said he has mixed feelings about the new regulations. The industry largely self-regulates, he said, on things like not selling products to those under 21. The 6 percent privilege tax will impact the industry and its customers, but “it is what it is.” Bercier said he’s at least glad lawmakers didn’t try to (once again) kill the industry completely.
“As far as what we are currently operating under in Tennessee, it’s probably the best rules and regulations on the hemp side in any of the states,” Bercier said.
But what about medical?
While work on hemp legislation has continued over the past few years, the Tennessee Medical Cannabis Commission has only watched from the sidelines. But they may get in the game sometime soon, and what some have suggested to them recently could blow the lid for cannabis in Tennessee.
The group was created by the legislature in 2021 to study other states’ medical cannabis programs (not hemp derivatives like Delta-8, but full-bore THC), to build a framework of a program here, and to see if Tennessee even needs a program at all. Since September of that year, the commission has studied. And that’s all they’ve done. And they’re kind of bored.
Members have quit because they just didn’t make it to many meetings. The group has a hard time raising a quorum even if they should ever need to vote on anything. They have money to hire an executive director. But they haven’t because they’re not sure exactly what that person would do and fear they may not get great candidates given the uncertainty around the state ever getting a medical cannabis program.
Members say, “We’re currently regulating nothing,” and that the mixed signals from the legislature — the body that created the group — range from silence, calls for them to slow down, or even the cold shoulder. They are “begging for direction,” they say, and get none.
Should they even keep meeting monthly, they asked last month? They’re knowledgeable in the field by now, but lawmakers just gave the reins of a hemp program to the agriculture department, not the health department. Medical cannabis bills rise and fall with regularity at the state house. What does the legislature even want with them?
A medical cannabis bill, as it turns out. That was the word from veteran lobbyist Melissa Bast last month, testifying to the commission on behalf of two cannabis-forward groups, Tennesseans United and the Tennessee Research Institute. Those bills that rise and fall each year are retreads from familiar places, she said, and lawmakers want something new.
“What I am hearing from the leadership is that they want [a bill] to be from the [Tennessee Medical Cannabis Commission],” Bast said. “They want it to be your bill brought forward. They want it to be vetted … and to be brought forward in a timely manner so that all the departments can see it and all the members can see it so we can get it ready for 2024. I’m hearing this is the path.”
With that, Bast pushed commission members to continue their work, even speed it up if they could.
The lid-busting element of Bast’s plan (aside from the commission’s bill) would be to remove the state’s requirement not to move on cannabis until the federal government removes it from the Schedule I. President Joe Biden made some cannabis reforms last year but did not remove it from the highest tier of illegal drugs, where it still sits next to LSD, meth, heroin, and peyote. Other states have fully legalized cannabis even though it remains a federal crime. Tennessee law says it won’t until the feds say it’s okay.
“Every state that touches us has a program and we don’t,” said cannabis commission member and Manchester pharmacist Dr. Ray Marcrom. “Many times we have delivered that message [to the legislature]. We’ve received nothing back.”
“If eight states around us have [at least a medical cannabis program] if nothing else, look at the revenue we’re losing in Tennessee. But more importantly, think about the patients we’re not taking care of.”
Ounce of Hope’s Bercier said he hopes the state gets a medical program next year but also keeps a wary eye on them.
“The dirty little secret at this point in Tennessee is that the way we are operating now is better than a medical bill,” he said. “Inside of a medical bill lies a lot more overreaching and ridiculous regulations. Not to mention that when you get thrown into the medical licensing, you are now subject to the federal government’s illegality. There’s a lot of bad things about that. But from the business perspective, once you … put yourself into the medical market, you now do not have a lot of the tax benefits that you do [under a hemp-only program].”
The legislature put a price tag on the revenue from hemp sales. The fiscal note with the new bill adds a 6 percent privilege tax to those products on top of state and local sales taxes. This is expected to yield $10 million a year for the state’s coffers.
Should Governor Lee allow the cannabis regulation bill to become a law, businesses would have until July 2024 to comply, getting their licenses from the state and such. While the TDA will take some time to finalize some rules, consumers could see changes in the way they buy hemp here as early as this year.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): All of us are always telling ourselves stories — in essence, making movies in our minds. We are the producer, the director, the special effects team, the voice-over narrator, and all the actors in these inner dramas. Are their themes repetitious and negative or creative and life-affirming? The coming weeks will be a favorable time to work on emphasizing the latter. If the tales unfolding in your imagination are veering off in a direction that provokes anxiety, reassert your directorial authority. Firmly and playfully reroute them so they uplift and enchant you.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): A famous football coach once said his main method was to manipulate, coax, and even bully his players into doing things they didn’t like to do. Why? So they could build their toughness and willpower, making it more likely they would accomplish formidable feats. While this may be an approach that works for some tasks, it’s not right for many others. Here’s a further nuance: The grind-it-out-doing-unpleasant-things may be apt for certain phases of a journey to success, but not for other phases. Here’s the good news, Taurus: For now, you have mostly completed doing what you don’t love to do. In the coming weeks, your freedom to focus on doing fun things will expand dramatically.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Most of us have an area of our lives where futility is a primary emotion. This may be a once-exciting dream that never got much traction. It could be a skill we possess that we’ve never found a satisfying way to express. The epicenter of our futility could be a relationship that has never lived up to its promise or a potential we haven’t been able to ripen. Wherever this sense of fruitlessness resides in your own life, Gemini, I have an interesting prediction: During the next 12 months, you will either finally garner some meaningful fulfillment through it or else find a way to outgrow it.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Many of us Cancerians have high levels of perseverance. Our resoluteness and doggedness may be uncanny. But we often practice these subtle superpowers with such sensitive grace that they’re virtually invisible to casual observers. We appear modest and gentle, not fierce and driven. For instance, this is the first time I have bragged about the fact that I have composed over 2,000 consecutive horoscope columns without ever missing a deadline. Anyway, my fellow Crabs, I have a really good feeling about how much grit and determination you will be able to marshal in the coming months. You may break your own personal records for tenacity.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Why do migrating geese fly in a V formation? For one thing, it conserves their energy. Every bird except the leader enjoys a reduction in wind resistance. As the flight progresses, the geese take turns being the guide in front. Soaring along in this shape also seems to aid the birds’ communication and coordination. I suggest you consider making this scenario your inspiration, dear Leo. You are entering a phase when synergetic cooperation with others is even more important than usual. If you feel called to lead, be ready and willing to exert yourself — and be open to letting your associates serve as leaders. For extra credit: Do a web search for an image of migrating geese and keep it in a prominent place for the next four weeks.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): I boldly predict that you will soon locate a missing magic key. Hooray! It hasn’t been easy. There has been luck involved, but your Virgo-style diligence and ingenuity has been crucial. I also predict that you will locate the door that the magic key will unlock. Now here’s my challenge: Please fulfill my two predictions no later than the solstice. To aid your search, meditate on this question: “What is the most important breakthrough for me to accomplish in the next six weeks?”
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Losing something we value may make us sad. It can cause us to doubt ourselves and wonder if we have fallen out of favor with the Fates or are somehow being punished by God. I’ve experienced deflations and demoralizations like that on far more occasions than I want to remember. And yet, I have noticed that when these apparent misfortunes have happened, they have often opened up space for new possibilities that would not otherwise have come my way. They have emptied out a corner of my imagination that becomes receptive to a fresh dispensation. I predict such a development for you, Libra.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Kissing is always a worthy way to spend your leisure time, but I foresee an even finer opportunity in the coming weeks: magnificent kissing sprees that spur you to explore previously unplumbed depths of wild tenderness. On a related theme, it’s always a wise self-blessing to experiment with rich new shades and tones of intimacy. But you are now eligible for an unusually profound excursion into these mysteries. Are you bold and free enough to glide further into the frontiers of fascinating togetherness?
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723) worked at a variety of jobs. He sold cloth. He was a land surveyor and bookkeeper. He managed the household affairs of his city’s sheriffs, and he supervised the city’s wine imports and taxation. Oh, by the way, he also had a hobby on the side: lens-making. This ultimately led to a spectacular outcome. Leeuwenhoek created the world’s first high-powered microscope and was instrumental in transforming microbiology into a scientific discipline. In accordance with astrological omens, I propose we make him your inspirational role model in the coming months, Sagittarius. What hobby or pastime or amusement could you turn into a central passion?
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): I wonder if you weren’t listened to attentively when you were a kid. And is it possible you weren’t hugged enough or consistently treated with the tender kindness you deserved and needed? I’m worried there weren’t enough adults who recognized your potential strengths and helped nurture them. But if you did indeed endure any of this mistreatment, dear Capricorn, I have good news. During the next 12 months, you will have unprecedented opportunities to overcome at least some of the neglect you experienced while young. Here’s the motto you can aspire to: “It’s never too late to have a fruitful childhood and creative adolescence.”
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): As I’ve explored the mysteries of healing my traumas and disturbances over the past 20 years, I’ve concluded that the single most effective healer I can work with is my own body. Expert health practitioners are crucial, too, but their work requires my body’s full, purposeful, collaborative engagement. The soft warm animal home I inhabit has great wisdom about what it needs and how to get what it needs and how to work with the help it receives from other healers. The key is to refine the art of listening to its counsel. It has taken me a while to learn its language, but I’m making good progress. Dear Aquarius, in the coming weeks, you can make great strides in developing such a robust relationship with your body.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Can we surmise what your life might be like as the expansive planet Jupiter rumbles through your astrological House of Connections and Communications during the coming months? I expect you will be even more articulate and persuasive than usual. Your ability to create new alliances and nurture old ones will be at a peak. By the way, the House of Communications and Connections is also the House of Education and Acumen. So I suspect you will learn a LOT during this time. It’s likely you will be brainier and more perceptive than ever before. Important advice: Call on your waxing intelligence to make you wiser as well as smarter.
