{"id":62262,"date":"2023-03-01T12:53:04","date_gmt":"2023-03-01T20:53:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2023\/03\/01\/key-kansas-lawmaker-skeptical-of-medical-marijuana-following-police-testimony\/"},"modified":"2023-03-01T19:46:56","modified_gmt":"2023-03-02T03:46:56","slug":"key-kansas-lawmaker-skeptical-of-medical-marijuana-following-police-testimony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2023\/03\/01\/key-kansas-lawmaker-skeptical-of-medical-marijuana-following-police-testimony\/","title":{"rendered":"Key Kansas Lawmaker Skeptical Of Medical Marijuana Following Police Testimony"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is literally the wild west, and that\u2019s why they\u2019re having so much problem with the cartels, black market issues, things of that nature. That\u2019s scary to me, frightening, in fact.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

By Rachel Mipro, Kansas Reflector<\/strong><\/p>\n

The future of marijuana in Kansas is still dubious.<\/p>\n

Sen. Mike Thompson, a Shawnee Republican and chair of the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee, said he wasn\u2019t willing to rush forward with any form of marijuana legislation<\/a>, such as\u00a0Senate Bill 171.<\/p>\n

The bill, which has been placed in his committee, would legalize marijuana use for veterans with a valid medical card. The bill would also allow for the cultivation, distribution, sale and use of medical cannabis.\u00a0While lawmakers have debated legalization legislation for years, and lawmakers created a\u00a0special committee on medical marijuana<\/a>\u00a0to consider all aspects of legalization, Thompson said more data was still needed.<\/p>\n

He pointed to testimony given by opponents of marijuana legalization during a Wednesday committee meeting as examples of new and crucial data needed to decide whether to proceed. His committee will continue to hear testimony on marijuana legislation Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t have this kind of volume of evidence and data, and so I feel like this is necessary before we even think about where we\u2019re going to go with this,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cSo at this point, we\u2019re still in data collection. Do we want to make a decision in a hasty fashion? I don\u2019t want to.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the meeting, opponents of marijuana legalization spoke about potentially disastrous consequences for legalization, though some of their credentials were unclear. Steve Howe, the Johnson County district attorney, said it was insulting to say legalizing medical marijuana would help veterans along with others suffering from PTSD.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s offensive to use veterans to be the selling point for this type of legalization or medical marijuana,\u201d Howe said. \u201cThe last thing you want a person to do who\u2019s suffering from PTSD is to get them high. That just flies in the face of all logic in the medical community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brian Surber, deputy director of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics, warned lawmakers about the impact of legalization, pointing to Oklahoma as an example of problems with legalization.\u00a0Oklahoma voters approved medical marijuana in 2018, and will vote on recreational legalization this month.<\/p>\n

Surber said he had recently seen a marijuana farm with sex trafficking, labor trafficking and human trafficking, and said the state\u2019s medical marijuana legalization had led to an explosion of black market and drug cartel activities. Surber also compared marijuana legalization to communism.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt reminds me of people who support communist regimes, that support socialism, \u2018It\u2019s like well, Cuba just wasn\u2019t done right.\u2019 Because every one that has been done so far has been a failure,\u201d Surber said.<\/p>\n

Thompson mentioned Surber\u2019s testimony in an interview with the Reflector after the hearing. He felt Oklahoma\u2019s legalization had a damaging effect.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is literally the wild west, and that\u2019s why they\u2019re having so much problem with the cartels, black market issues, things of that nature,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cThat\u2019s scary to me, frightening, in fact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another lawmaker on the committee,\u00a0Wichita Democrat Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau, said she was hopeful about legalization and believed the Legislature would be able to work some sort of bill.\u00a0Faust-Goudeau is one of the sponsors of SB 171.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know Kansans are frustrated; I know that those with chronic medical issues need some relief,\u201d Faust-Goudeau said. \u201cKansas has to do something soon for Kansans that are affected by this and who are proponents. I think we can do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another bill,\u00a0House Bill 2363, known\u00a0as the cannabis amnesty act, would essentially decriminalize marijuana, releasing people convicted of marijuana crimes<\/a> and expunging marijuana-related arrests and convictions from their records.<\/p>\n

Supporters worry that these new bills will suffer the same fate as previous marijuana legalization attempts.<\/p>\n

The Kansas House approved medical marijuana legalization in 2021, but Senate Bill 560, which would have allowed for the cultivation, distribution, processing, dispensing and purchase of marijuana and paraphernalia, died in committee during the last days of the legislative session.<\/p>\n

Kansas remains one of three states left in the country that does not permit some form of medical marijuana use. Missouri legalized recreational marijuana last year.<\/p>\n

Thompson said he wasn\u2019t concerned about running out the clock this legislative session.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still have time,\u201d Thompson said.<\/p>\n

This story was first published by Kansas Reflector.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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Biden\u2019s Attorney General Says DOJ Is \u2018Still Working On\u2019 Federal Marijuana Policy Approach<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.<\/em><\/p>\n

The post Key Kansas Lawmaker Skeptical Of Medical Marijuana Following Police Testimony<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\nRead More: Key Kansas Lawmaker Skeptical Of Medical Marijuana Following Police Testimony<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt is literally the wild west, and that\u2019s why they\u2019re having so much problem with the cartels, black market issues, things of that nature. That\u2019s scary to me, frightening, in fact.\u201d By Rachel Mipro, Kansas Reflector The future of marijuana in Kansas is still dubious. Sen. Mike Thompson, a ShawneeContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":457,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[81,126],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62262"}],"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\/457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62262"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62263,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62262\/revisions\/62263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}