The Kentucky Senate approved a bill on Thursday to legalize medical marijuana in the state\u2014a historic first in the chamber of the conservative legislature.<\/p>\n
The Senate passed the legislation from Sen. Stephen West (R) in a 26-11 vote on the last possible day of the session to advance bills to the other chamber.<\/p>\n
The House has approved similar proposals in prior sessions only to see them stall without action on the Senate side.<\/p>\n
This development comes two days after the Senate Licensing & Occupations Committee passed the measure<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThis bill has been discussed in this chamber for many years,\u201d West told colleagues, saying that his journey to supporting the issue began when he met a quadriplegic constituent who could benefit from medical cannabis.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m now convinced that medical marijuana, provided to our citizens through a tightly-regulated system, can provide some important relief to our constituents,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s time for Kentucky to join the other 37 states in the United States that allow medical marijuana as an option for their citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what\u00a0SB 47<\/a> would accomplish as amended:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Patients with recommendations from doctors or advanced nurse practitioners could qualify to use cannabis if they have cancer, severe pain, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, muscle spasms or spasticity, chronic nausea or cyclical vomiting, post-traumatic stress disorder or any other medical condition or disease which the Kentucky Center for Cannabis deems appropriate.<\/p>\n Smoking marijuana would be prohibited, but patients could still access raw cannabis for vaporization.<\/p>\n Home cultivation would not be allowed.<\/p>\n Patients could possess a 30-day supply of cannabis in their residence and a 10-day supply on their person.<\/p>\n Patient registration would only last up to 60 days, and the initial visit must be in person.<\/p>\n There would be a 35 percent THC cap on flower marijuana products and 70 percent cap for concentrates. Edibles could not exceed 10 milligrams per serving.<\/p>\n Medical cannabis would be exempt from sales and excise taxes.<\/p>\n The Cabinet for Health and Family Services would be charged with overseeing the program, including setting regulations and issuing business licenses.<\/p>\n License categories include three tiers of cultivators as well as producers, processors, safety compliance facilities and dispensaries.<\/p>\n Local governments could opt out of allowing cannabis businesses to operate, but citizens could petition to have their municipalities opt back in.<\/p>\n A nine-member Board of Physicians and Advisors would be created consisting of seven physicians and two advanced nurse practitioners.<\/p>\n Regulations would need to be finalized by January 1, 2024.<\/p>\n The state Board of Physicians and State Board of Nursing would be responsible for certifying practitioners to recommend cannabis.<\/p>\n Ahead of the floor vote, senators adopted a committee substitute as well as an amendment from the bill sponsor that explicitly preserves the right of employers to determine if a worker is impaired on the job with behavioral assessments and drug testing. If the the employer concludes that the assessments show evidence of on-duty impairment, the \u201cburden of proving non-impairment shall shift to the employee to refute the findings.\u201d<\/p>\n The House\u00a0passed a medical cannabis legalization bill last year<\/a>, and in a prior session, but they died with out action in the Senate. That\u2019s why advocates started on the Senate side this session.<\/p>\n One obstacle for the reform has been Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer (R), who\u2019s steadfastly opposed broad medical cannabis policy reform<\/a>, arguing that it\u2019s a fast-track to full adult-use legalization.<\/p>\n More recently, however, he said that he would not stand in the way if the bill had enough support to pass. And on Tuesday he voted to support the bill in committee, saying that its \u201cnarrowly focused approach\u201d won him over. He also backed the measure on the floor on Thursday.<\/p>\n Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) called on the legislature\u00a0to legalize medical cannabis \u201cthis session\u201d<\/a>\u00a0during his State of the Commonwealth speech in January, saying that it\u2019s an essential reform for the state to make sure it is \u201ctreating people right.\u201d<\/p>\n The speech came after the governor\u00a0signed a pair of executive orders in November<\/a>, allowing patients who meet certain criteria to possess up to eight ounces of medical cannabis legally obtained from dispensaries in other states and also regulate the sale of delta-8 THC products.<\/p>\n Republican gubernatorial candidate Ryan Quarles, the state\u2019s current agriculture commissioner, recently said that\u00a0he\u2019d work with lawmakers to enact medical cannabis legalization<\/a>\u00a0within his first year in office if elected.<\/p>\n Advocates have\u00a0stepped up their efforts to pressure lawmakers<\/a>\u00a0to enact reform this session, with groups like Kentucky Moms for Medical Cannabis (KMMC) and Kentucky NORML making their position clear that the issue has stalled for too long in the Bluegrass State.<\/p>\n Last year,\u00a0the governor released a report<\/a>\u00a0from a\u00a0medical marijuana advisory committee that he formed<\/a>, and he said in September that he would be taking their findings into account as he continues to consider executive actions for reform.<\/p>\n The governor\u00a0previewed plans to advance the issue<\/a>\u00a0of medical marijuana administratively last year, criticizing the Senate for failing to heed the will of voters and for \u201cobstructing\u201d reform by refusing to even give a hearing to a House-passed bill this year.<\/p>\n Beshear also voiced support for broader marijuana legalization in 2020, saying that it\u2019s \u201ctime we joined so many other states in doing the right thing.\u201d He added that Kentucky farmers would be well positioned to\u00a0grow and sell cannabis to other states<\/a>.<\/p>\n Last week, the Kentucky House of Representatives passed a bill to regulate the sale of delta-8 THC products<\/a>.<\/p>\n In January, a lawmaker filed legislation for the 2023 session that would\u00a0put a marijuana legalization referendum on the ballot<\/a>\u00a0for voters to decide on, but it has not advanced.<\/p>\n Majority Of Texas Voters Want \u2018Less Strict\u2019 Marijuana Laws, Poll Finds As Decriminalization Bill Advances<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis \/\/ Side Pocket Images.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Kentucky Senate Passes Medical Marijuana Legalization Bill<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The Kentucky Senate approved a bill on Thursday to legalize medical marijuana in the state\u2014a historic first in the chamber of the conservative legislature. The Senate passed the legislation from Sen. Stephen West (R) in a 26-11 vote on the last possible day of the session to advance bills toContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"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\/62734"}],"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=62734"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62735,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62734\/revisions\/62735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Kentucky Senate Passes Medical Marijuana Legalization Bill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"