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Medical marijuana legalization is being revived in the Kansas legislature, with a senator introducing a new reform bill on Monday after separate House-passed legislation stalled in the Senate<\/a> earlier this year.<\/p>\n Sen. Robert Olson (R) is sponsoring the new Medical Marijuana Regulation Act, which would provide patients diagnosed with a series of medical conditions with to access limited forms of cannabis.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been introduced in the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee, which the sponsor chairs. This filing comes about a year after the House approved similar legislation, only to have it quashed in committee in the Senate in January.<\/p>\n The new measure lists more than 20 qualifying conditions, including cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson\u2019s disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, and autoimmune disorders. It would also allow legal marijuana access for patients with \u201cany other chronic, debilitating or terminal condition that, in the professional judgment of a physician licensed in this state, would be a detriment to the patient\u2019s mental or physical health if left untreated.\u201d<\/p>\n Patients would be entitled to obtain a 30-day supply of medical cannabis products at a time. For dry flower marijuana, that purchase limit would be at least three ounces. But there would be an exception \u201cupon submission of a written certification from two independent physicians that there are compelling reasons for the patient or caregiver to purchase greater quantities of medical marijuana.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014 Patients\u2019 medical cannabis recommendations would be valid for 90 days, after which point a physician may \u201crenew the recommendation for not more than three additional periods of not more than 90 days each,\u201d the bill says. After that, another extension could be issued \u201conly upon a physical examination of the patient.\u201d<\/p>\n Multiple regulatory bodies would be in charge of administering the program. The state Department of Health and Environment, Board of Healing Arts, Board of Pharmacy and a renamed Alcohol and Cannabis Control division would each play a role in the regulations.<\/p>\n The legislation would also establish a medical marijuana advisory committee to help oversee the program and issue recommendations.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is one of the best days that we\u2019ve had working for reform in three years,\u201d Erin Montroy, co-president and CEO of the Kansas Cannabis Business Association (KSCBA), told Marijuana Moment in a phone interview on Monday.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019ve seen here is so encouraging because it has been a true representation of democracy,\u201d Montroy said. \u201cThis is how the government is supposed to work. This is how things are supposed to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n The bill calls for five different license types: cultivators, processors, laboratories, distributors and retailers. People would be rendered ineligible for a medical marijuana licenses if they\u2019ve been convicted of a felony, unless that conviction was expunged at least 10 years before the application is submitted.<\/p>\n Advocates are generally encouraged by the bill\u2019s introduction, and they expect a hearing on it in Olson\u2019s committee in the coming days. They say that certain provisions represent an expansion of the previously House-passed legislation, in particular when it comes to the number of qualifying conditions.<\/p>\n Still, there would be no home cultivation option\u2014a policy that faced significant pushback in past sessions. And patients would not be allowed to smoke or vape marijuana products, even though \u201cplant material\u201d would be among the types of marijuana that could be dispensed by licensed businesses.<\/p>\n There would also be a 35 percent THC cap on marijuana plant material.<\/p>\n Counties would be able to enact local bans on permitting marijuana businesses from operating within their jurisdictions \u201cby adoption of a resolution,\u201d according to the text of the bill, which has not yet been posted on the legislature\u2019s website but which was obtained by Marijuana Moment.<\/p>\n Regulators would have until January 1, 2024 to promulgate rules for the program.<\/p>\n Daniel Shafton, a consultant for KSCBA, told Marijuana Moment that this session \u201cwe have seen some of the best legislating and work on this issue\u2014and on any issue, period.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe way that the chairman and senators and representatives have been involved up to this point\u2014have done their homework, going to facilities and neighboring states, understanding neighboring legislation, as well as their ability and willingness to get all the voices to the table from activist to business owners\u2014has shown that they understand that this is important to the public.\u201d<\/p>\n He said legislators \u201chave demonstrated every step of the way that they\u2019re taking this seriously, and listening to the voices that will be most affected by it.\u201d<\/p>\n With respect to equity provisions, there does not appear to be an explicit pathway for expungements, nor licensing prioritization for people from communities most impacted by prohibition as advocates have pushed for in other states.<\/p>\n Separately, House Minority Leader Tom Sawyer (D) and Assistant Minority Leader Jason Probst (D) said in January that they will be introducing proposals to let voters decide on legalizing medical and adult-use marijuana<\/a>\u00a0in the state. At the time, Sawyer said he was \u201chopeful\u201d that the legislature might separately advance the House-passed legalization measure.<\/p>\n Gov. Laura Kelly (D), for her part, wants to see medical cannabis legalization enacted, and she said earlier this year 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\u00a0legalize 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\u00a0wouldn\u2019t rule out signing the reform<\/a>\u00a0into law if a reform bill arrived on her desk.<\/p>\n Read the Kansas medical marijuana legalization bill<\/a> below:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n Top GOP Wisconsin Lawmaker Says Marijuana Legalization Will Come \u2018At Some Point\u2019 Despite Republican Resistance<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.<\/i><\/p>\n The post Key GOP Kansas Lawmaker Files Medical Marijuana Legalization Bill In Senate<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Medical marijuana legalization is being revived in the Kansas legislature, with a senator introducing a new reform bill on Monday after separate House-passed legislation stalled in the Senate earlier this year. Sen. Robert Olson (R) is sponsoring the new Medical Marijuana Regulation Act, which would provide patients diagnosed with aContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":53400,"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\/53399"}],"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=53399"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53401,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53399\/revisions\/53401"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Key GOP Kansas Lawmaker Files Medical Marijuana Legalization Bill In Senate<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"