TN Anti-Reform Leadership — Lee, McNally, Sexton, Skrmetti

Last verified: May 2026

Gov. Bill Lee (R) — Personal and Public Opposition

Gov. Bill Lee (R) is in his second and final term (2023–January 2027). He is personally and publicly anti-cannabis. His most-cited 2018 statement (during the gubernatorial campaign): "I don't think Tennesseans should be able to possess and use marijuana. I'm opposed to using medical marijuana until we determine that there is data, substantial data, that shows that it really is as effective as some propose."

Lee's gubernatorial actions have aligned with that posture:

• May 27, 2021: Signed 2021 Public Acts Chapter 577 (HB 1164 / SB 118) creating the Tennessee Medical Cannabis Commission as a study-only body and expanding the narrow CBD-oil affirmative defense. See the TMCC page.
• May 11, 2023: Signed 2023 Public Chapter 423 (SB 378 / HB 403) establishing the first hemp-derived cannabinoid regulatory framework under TDA.
• May 21, 2025: Signed Public Chapter 526 of 2025 (HB 1376 / SB 1413) — the hemp overhaul transferring regulation to TABC, banning THCA and synthetic delta-8/-10, mandating three-tier alcohol-style distribution. See the Public Chapter 526 page.
• April 23, 2026: Signed SB 1603 stripping his own administration's Health and Mental Health/Substance Abuse Services commissioners of authority to align state cannabis scheduling with federal rescheduling without legislative approval.

Lee's 2026 SB 1603 signature is particularly notable: federal Schedule III rescheduling was implemented by Trump's December 2025 executive order, and Lee's signature on SB 1603 ensured Tennessee's Schedule VI prohibition under T.C.A. § 39-17-415 cannot be administratively realigned by his own commissioners.

Lt. Gov. Randy McNally (R) — Senate Speaker, Cautious

Lt. Gov. Randy McNally (R) is the Speaker of the Tennessee Senate. McNally has been among the most cautious Republican leaders on cannabis. He has indicated post-federal-rescheduling discussions might be possible but has not advanced legislation in any direction. His three appointments to the Tennessee Medical Cannabis Commission — Dr. Steve Dickerson (former state senator, anesthesiologist; original Chair, resigned chairmanship December 2022); a District Attorney General surnamed "Johnson" (original Vice-Chair); and Dr. Ray Marcrom (pharmacist) — tilted heavily toward law enforcement and pharmacy, contributing to the structural critique that the TMCC was structurally inhospitable to a functional medical program.

McNally controls Senate committee assignments and floor scheduling. His passive-but-not-actively-blocking posture is one structural factor in why every comprehensive medical-cannabis bill since 2018 has failed to reach floor votes.

Speaker Cameron Sexton (R) — House, Leadership Consensus

Speaker Cameron Sexton (R) is the Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives. Sexton is aligned with the broader Republican leadership consensus against cannabis reform. His three appointments to the TMCC — Dr. Barry Walton (pharmacist); Dr. Ana Lisa Carr (family medicine physician, removed under § 68-7-103(c)(1) for failing to attend more than 50% of meetings, term ended June 30, 2025); and David Griswold (Chief of Police, Nashville International Airport) — followed the same law-enforcement / pharmacy tilt.

Sexton controls House committee assignments and floor scheduling. He has not personally led on cannabis-policy questions but has supported the broader leadership posture against advancing bills.

House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland)

Rep. William Lamberth (R-Portland) is the House Majority Leader and the primary architectural author of the 2017 Public Chapter 39 preemption statute (HB 0173). Lamberth's defense of the 2017 preemption: "You can't allow an officer at their whim to treat two different individuals who have potentially committed the same crime in drastically different ways depending on what that officer feels like at a given time."

Lamberth's 2024 restatement on ballot referendum: "A ballot initiative is not the way to go about this. It should be debated in the halls of the legislature and then the determination made from the elected senators and representatives." The position is internally consistent: cannabis policy belongs in the General Assembly, not in local ordinances and not on the ballot. Lamberth has consistently opposed comprehensive medical and adult-use bills.

AG Jonathan Skrmetti (R) — Enforcement-Oriented

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti (R) succeeded Herbert Slatery III in 2022. Skrmetti has not issued substantive cannabis policy opinions but has continued the office's enforcement-oriented posture under the 2017 preemption framework. The AG's office handles state-level cannabis litigation, including Tennessee's litigation interests in the 2024 hemp-rules cases (Tennessee Growers Coalition et al. v. Tennessee Department of Agriculture) where the AG's office defended TDA's "total THC" definition before Davidson County Chancellor I'Ashea L. Myles' temporary restraining order forced TDA to withdraw the rules.

Predecessor AG Herbert Slatery III — The 2016 Opinion

Skrmetti's predecessor, AG Herbert Slatery III (R, 2014–2022), authored the consequential November 16, 2016 opinion that doomed the Memphis and Nashville civil-citation ordinances. Slatery's reasoning: the ordinances "displace the more stringent state law criminal penalties that the General Assembly has prescribed with substantially reduced civil fines by allowing an officer to issue a municipal civil citation, in lieu of a criminal warrant." Within hours of Slatery's opinion, Memphis suspended enforcement of its October 2016 ordinance; Nashville's September 2016 ordinance never went into operational effect.

Slatery's 2016 opinion is the institutional foundation on which the 2017 Lamberth preemption statute (HB 0173) was built. The Slatery→Lamberth→current-leadership chain is a continuous Republican institutional position spanning a decade.

Rep. Andrew Farmer (R-Sevierville) — SB 1603 Sponsor

Rep. Andrew Farmer (R-Sevierville) sponsored SB 1603 in 2026 — the bill stripping the state Health and Mental Health/Substance Abuse Services commissioners of authority to align state cannabis scheduling with federal rescheduling. Farmer's bill represents the formal Republican leadership response to the December 2025 federal Schedule III rescheduling: prevent administrative state-level realignment, force any cannabis-rescheduling change to clear the same Republican supermajority that has refused to advance reform bills since 2018.

The Republican Supermajority Numbers

The structural barrier in raw numbers (2026 General Assembly composition):

• House Republican supermajority: 75+ of 99 seats.
• Senate Republican supermajority: 27 of 33 seats.
• House Speaker: Cameron Sexton (R).
• House Majority Leader: William Lamberth (R-Portland) — primary author of 2017 preemption.
• Senate Speaker: Lt. Gov. Randy McNally (R).
• Governor: Bill Lee (R), term-limited January 2027.
• Attorney General: Jonathan Skrmetti (R).

Cannabis policy that does not find favor with this configuration does not advance. Even a coalition of Republican reformers (Bowling, Faison, Haile) and Democratic reformers (Yarbro, Akbari, Campbell, Behn, Lamar, Powell, Hardaway, Mitchell) has not been able to clear a comprehensive medical-cannabis bill since the 2014 CBD-oil carve-out and its 2021 expansion. See the reform-coalition page.

The 2027 Succession Question

Lee is term-limited in January 2027. The Republican gubernatorial primary for the 2026 cycle (with general election November 2026 and inauguration January 2027) will determine the next governor's cannabis posture. The leading announced candidates as of May 2026 are not significantly more reform-friendly than Lee. The Republican supermajority structure in both chambers will persist regardless of the gubernatorial outcome unless 2026 cycle results substantially shift House or Senate composition.

The most likely 2027–2029 outcomes: continued failure of comprehensive reform bills; possible incremental medical-cannabis bills if a reform-favoring governor wins (unlikely under current dynamics); the TMCC sunset extension to June 30, 2029 and the November 1, 2026 TACIR readiness study suggest the leadership trajectory is to study indefinitely rather than to act.