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Kentucky Democratic leaders announced on Monday that legalizing medical marijuana is one of their top priorities for the upcoming 2022 legislative session.<\/p>\n
At a press briefing, party leaders from the House and Senate laid out their goals for the new year, highlighting cannabis reform as one of several major issues for the year in a list that also includes expanding healthcare, voting access, legalizing sports betting and universal pre-k education.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother thing enjoys widespread support among Kentuckians\u2014and is just long overdue\u2014is commonsense cannabis laws,\u201d Senate Minority Leader Morgan McGarvey (D) said. \u201cWe must go ahead and get medical marijuana passed in Kentucky this session.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watch the leader talk about medical cannabis reform in the video below, around 8:25 into the video below:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n The senator said lawmakers are reading to work with the governor in \u201cmaking sure that Kentucky has a great medical cannabis law for its people.\u201d<\/p>\n He later said that, between federal funding and the state\u2019s budget surplus, Kentucky has the ability to accomplish a number of priorities, including joining other states that \u201chave medical marijuana that can provide additional revenue to the Commonwealth.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019re pushing forward these priorities because we think not only can it pass, it should pass,\u201d McGarvey said. \u201cWe want Kentucky to continue going on the right track.\u201d<\/p>\n Last month, Gov. Andy Beshear (D) said medical marijuana is \u201cthe future,\u201d<\/a> and part of that future should involve letting farmers grow cannabis to sell to other states. He also expressed openness to broader legislation that would allow adults 21 and older to grow and possess cannabis without having a medical reason for it.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the future. It\u2019s where things are going,\u201d he said of medical marijuana. \u201cIt\u2019s time we joined so many other states in doing the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Beshear, who called on lawmakers to pass the reform<\/a> during a State of the Commonwealth last year, said that \u201cit is past time\u201d to legalize cannabis for medical use and that the plant \u201ccan provide some relief for folks that would otherwise turn to more damaging substances.\u201d<\/p>\n McGarvey said at Monday\u2019s presser that Kentuckians \u201chave been crying out for [medical marijuana legalization] for years.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThese issues are popular across the Commonwealth,\u201d McGarvey said. \u201cAfter careful consideration, deliberation, and speaking with constituents, we feel the proposals we have laid out empower individuals and help our state move forward. We are hopeful that some, if not all, can advance with bipartisan work and support from our Republican colleagues in the Senate and House.\u201d<\/p>\n While the governor has said that his focus will be on getting medical cannabis enacted in the coming legislative session, he also talked about broader legislation introduced by Rep. Nima Kulkarni (D) in November would prevent people from being incarcerated over marijuana for any use, saying he\u2019s in favor of that policy.<\/p>\n Kulkarni\u2019s bill would\u00a0legalize the possession and personal cultivation of cannabis<\/a>, but it doesn\u2019t provide a regulatory framework for commercial sales.<\/p>\n \u2014 The Republican sponsor of a bill to legalize medical marijuana in Kentucky said in October that\u00a0he made multiple revisions to the legislation to scale it back<\/a>\u00a0and add restrictions to garner more support from colleagues\u2014and he said he\u2019s confident it would pass if legislative leaders had the \u201ccourage\u201d to simply allow a vote on it.<\/p>\n Rep. Jason Nemes (R) filed a medical legalization bill that\u00a0soundly passed the House in 2020<\/a> but later died in the Senate without a vote amid the early part of the coronavirus pandemic. He\u00a0reintroduced the legislation<\/a> last January for the 2021 session but it did not advance in that session. Now he\u2019s working to build support for a new version for 2022.<\/p>\n A\u00a0poll released in 2020 found\u00a0that nine out of 10 Kentucky residents support legalizing medical marijuana<\/a>, and almost 60 percent say cannabis should be legal under \u201cany circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n Incoming Virginia GOP Governor Won\u2019t \u2018Overturn\u2019 Legal Marijuana Possession, But Casts Doubt On Sales<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Kimberly Lawson.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Kentucky Democratic Leaders Say Medical Marijuana Legalization Will Be Top 2022 Legislative Priority<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Kentucky Democratic leaders announced on Monday that legalizing medical marijuana is one of their top priorities for the upcoming 2022 legislative session. At a press briefing, party leaders from the House and Senate laid out their goals for the new year, highlighting cannabis reform as one of several major issuesContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":52080,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81,126],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52079"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52079"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52081,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52079\/revisions\/52081"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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