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A House-passed bill to legalize medical marijuana in Kansas seems to be in jeopardy, with GOP Senate leadership moving the legislation out of a committee and into a different panel where it may sit in legislative limbo, resulting in the cancellation of hearings that were scheduled to be held this week.<\/p>\n
Advocates are concerned about the decision by Senate President Ty Masterson (R), who withdrew the cannabis reform legislation from the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee days before hearings were to be held on Tuesday and Wednesday. It was then re-referred to the Senate Interstate Cooperation Committee, which Masterson chairs and where the bill\u2019s fate is unclear.<\/p>\n
This doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that medical marijuana legalization is off the table for Kansas in 2022, but it does seem to signal that the reform might need to be enacted through another vehicle, either in the legislature or at the ballot, as top Democratic lawmakers in the state are pursuing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe certainly hope that this action is just making sure that this bill meets any concerns that Senate leadership may have concerning this historic legislation,\u201d Kevin Caldwell, a legislative manager at Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), told Marijuana Moment. \u201cThis bill had widespread bipartisan support in the House last session. We hope Senate President Masterson quickly holds a committee hearing and advances this legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the proposal was being advanced in the House<\/a> last year during the first half of the two-year session, members amended an unrelated bill that previously cleared the Senate to make it the chamber\u2019s vehicle for the policy change. Because of that, it was ruled \u201cmaterially changed\u201d last May and sent to the Senate for committee consideration.<\/p>\n Now there\u2019s a question of whether lawmakers will be motivated to introduce another separate bill and try to move it through both chambers, requiring another House vote. The Senate president seemed to temper expectations in recent remarks, telling<\/a> The Kansas City Star that \u201cnot a single member\u201d of his caucus has expressed that the issue \u201cwas important to them.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s not how Kansas Democrats feel, however. House Minority Leader Tom Sawyer (D) and Assistant Minority Leader Jason Probst (D) said this month that they will be introducing proposals to let voters decide on legalizing medical and adult-use marijuana<\/a> in the state. At the time, Sawyer said he was \u201chopeful\u201d that the legislature might separately advance the House-passed legalization measure.<\/p>\n \u2014 \u201cThe people of Kansas deserve to know if senators support the overwhelming majority of people who want to alleviate patients\u2019 suffering with a medical cannabis program,\u201d MPP\u2019s Caldwell said. \u201cNow is the time to show compassion to their fellow citizens and vote this bill out of committee.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cKansas is one of thirteen states left without a medical cannabis program,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have faith that the Kansas Senate will pass this legislation this session and this is just another step in that process.\u201d<\/p>\n Michael Pirner, Masterson\u2019s communications director, told the Star that \u201cmedical marijuana legislation is not a priority of Senate leadership,\u201d but did signal the issue may still be considered before the year is over.<\/p>\n \u201cThe subject matter has clearly matured and we expect it to be considered at some level this session,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are many more pressing topics on the Senate agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n The bill<\/a> as drafted contains several significant restrictions, including a ban on smokeable cannabis. Members of the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee did get a briefing on the issue at a meeting last week ahead of the expected, now-cancelled formal hearings before the panel.<\/p>\n\n Meanwhile, the constitutional amendment that the Democratic leaders are proposing would provide for a more comprehensive program that lawmakers would need to implement.<\/p>\n Gov. Laura Kelly (D), for her part, wants to see medical cannabis legalization enacted, and she said at a briefing with reporters on Friday that she \u201cabsolutely\u201d thinks the bill could pass if \u201ceverything else doesn\u2019t take up all the oxygen.\u201d<\/p>\n She previously pushed a separate proposal that would legalize medical cannabis and use the resulting revenue<\/a>\u00a0to support Medicaid expansion, with Rep. Brandon Woodard (D)\u00a0filing the measure on the governor\u2019s behalf<\/a>.<\/p>\n Kelly has she said she wants voters to put\u00a0pressure on their representatives to get the reform passed<\/a>.<\/p>\n The governor also said in 2020 that while she wouldn\u2019t personally advocate for adult-use legalization, she wouldn\u2019t rule out signing the reform<\/a>\u00a0into law if a reform bill arrived on her desk.<\/p>\n Marijuana Banking Bill Sponsor Says He\u2019s \u2018Gonna Get That Darn Thing Passed\u2019 Before Leaving Office<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Kansas Medical Marijuana Hearings Cancelled After Senate GOP Leader Reroutes House-Passed Bill<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A House-passed bill to legalize medical marijuana in Kansas seems to be in jeopardy, with GOP Senate leadership moving the legislation out of a committee and into a different panel where it may sit in legislative limbo, resulting in the cancellation of hearings that were scheduled to be held thisContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":52344,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52343"}],"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=52343"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52345,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52343\/revisions\/52345"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Kansas Medical Marijuana Hearings Cancelled After Senate GOP Leader Reroutes House-Passed Bill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"