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The Kansas Senate has rejected a motion to revive a medical marijuana legalization bill<\/a> after a GOP member forced a vote on the issue.<\/p>\n The chamber struck down the motion to take up the bill from Sen. Robert Olson (R) in a 12-25 vote on Friday. This comes weeks after a legislative committee shot down a separate medical cannabis pilot program bill.<\/p>\n The legislation Olson sought to bring up, SB 135, was shelved by a legislative panel a year ago amid pushback from law enforcement<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sen. Cindy Holscher (D) was among those who voted in favor of the proposal on Friday, and she said that \u201cover the past three weeks, scores of Kansans have reached out to their senator voicing support for medicinal cannabis\u2014as they have done for nearly the past decade.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSadly, supporters have faced many hurdles on this important measure time and time again,\u201d she said. \u201cToday, we\u2019ve been given a unique opportunity to move this measure forward, which is supported by a majority of Kansans.\u201d<\/p>\n Olsen previously backed medical marijuana legalization and said last October that Senate President Ty Masterson (R)\u00a0removed him as chair of a Senate committee after after he held the hearings on the issue<\/a>. The senator said at the time that he believed it was a retaliatory move.<\/p>\n The\u00a0measure<\/a>\u00a0in its current form would legalize and regulate medical marijuana in Kansas, with products taxed at 10 percent. The industry would be overseen by regulators at by the state Department of Revenue\u2019s Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control, which would be renamed the Division of Alcohol and Cannabis Control.<\/p>\n\n Patients and caregivers would need to register through the state\u2019s Department of Health and Environment, with patients paying a $50 registration fee and caregivers charged $25. All fees or fines collected as part of the program would be routed to a new Medical Cannabis Registration Fund to cover costs related to administration and enforcement.<\/p>\n Physicians would need to obtain a state certificate in order to recommend medical marijuana. The state\u2019s Board of Pharmacy, meanwhile, would establish guidelines for dispensary reports and tracking. A pharmacist seeking to work as consultants for a dispensary would need to pay a $100 registration fee.<\/p>\n Financial institutions working with state-legal businesses would be shielded from criminal liability under Kansas law, and the bill would allow state-licensed marijuana companies to do business with Native American tribal marijuana entities.<\/p>\n After the Senate committee shelved SB 135 last year, Gov. Laura Kelly (D) issued a statement urging the public to\u00a0contact their representatives to demand that they take the legislation back up for action<\/a>.<\/p>\n Kelly, who has long championed cannabis reform, said at the time that she was \u201cdisappointed that some legislators are saying they don\u2019t want to move forward with legalizing medical marijuana this year\u2014effectively turning their backs on our veterans and those with chronic pain and seizure disorders.\u201d<\/p>\n Olson\u2019s motion to revisit SB 135, filed earlier this month, came about a week after Kansas lawmakers shelved another medical marijuana bill, SB 555<\/a>, which would have created a limited pilot program in the state. That measure envisioned a maximum of four vertically integrated medical marijuana companies statewide, and it also would have allowed pharmacies to dispense medical marijuana.<\/p>\n \u2014 There would be a requirement that a director, manager or officer of a medical cannabis company have held a hemp producer license for the two years prior to entering the marijuana industry.<\/p>\n To participate in the program, patients with one of 16 qualifying conditions\u2014including cancer, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and chronic pain\u2014would need to obtain a certification from a physicians. Smoking cannabis would be banned, nor would patients or caregivers be allowed to grow marijuana at home.<\/p>\n At the time, Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) Director Tony Mattivi said his agency is \u201cstrongly opposed\u201d to the proposal.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m very concerned by some of the trends and the data that we\u2019ve seen as we look around the country at other states that have legalized,\u201d he said, arguing counter to most evidence that state-level reform is associated with increased rates of opioid overdoses.<\/p>\n He also claimed legalization would open the door to organized crime that the agency doesn\u2019t have the resources to manage.<\/p>\n The Kansas Cannabis Chamber of Commerce also opposed the bill, with President Erren Wright warning that the \u201cextreme limitations on medical cannabis in this bill are going to hurt more people than they help.\u201d<\/p>\n The pilot program measure was filed about a month after the Kansas House of Representatives rejected a Democratic lawmaker\u2019s amendment to a broader drug scheduling bill that would have\u00a0removed marijuana entirely from the state\u2019s controlled substances law<\/a>, effectively legalizing it.<\/p>\n A separate bill this session to\u00a0create a limited medical cannabis program has also faced resistance<\/a>\u00a0from some legislative leaders.<\/p>\n House lawmakers previously\u00a0passed a medical cannabis bill in 2021<\/a>, but it failed to get traction in the Senate.<\/p>\n Masterson, the Senate president,\u00a0said late last year he was open to a discussion about a limited medical marijuana program<\/a>, but in January he appeared less open to the idea,\u00a0calling medical legalization a \u201cnonstarter\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and suggesting the policy change could lead to a surge in \u201cgang activity\u201d and put kids at risk.<\/p>\n He also suggested voters didn\u2019t understand medical marijuana. \u201cI think what people see when they think of medical, they\u2019re thinking of, you know, palliative care and things like that,\u201d Masterson said.<\/p>\n Masterson, who also\u00a0helped kill the House-passed medical marijuana bill in 2021<\/a>, has downplayed popular support for broader adult-use cannabis legalization, suggesting voters don\u2019t understand the policy change.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you look at that question, I think most people would answer yes, but they don\u2019t know what they\u2019re actually saying yes to,\u201d the Senate president said.<\/p>\n Masterson nevertheless maintains that he remains open to discussing the topic. After opponents shelved the pilot program bill, he said in a statement that he\u2019s \u201cconsistently indicated that the issue of medical marijuana has matured to a point it warrants serious discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n Olson\u2019s motion this month would provide another opportunity for lawmakers to have that discussion.<\/p>\n A Kansas Speaks poll from last fall found that\u00a067 percent of Kansans, including a majority of Republicans, support legalizing cannabis for all adults 21 and older.<\/a><\/p>\n A year ago, in her 2023\u00a0State of the State address<\/a>, the governor said that there\u2019s a \u201ccommonsense way to improve health care here in Kansas\u2014and that\u2019s to finally legalize medical marijuana.\u201d<\/p>\n Kelly also said in 2021 that she would be \u201cenlisting the efforts of the people of Kansas who really want this\u201d to\u00a0pressure their lawmakers to get the reform enacted<\/a>.<\/p>\n Members of the state\u2019s Special Committee on Medical Marijuana\u00a0held final meetings on the issue<\/a>\u00a0in December 2022, as they worked to prepare legislation for the 2023 session. Sen. Rob Olson (R), who chaired the special panel, said that he believed Masterson removed him as chair of the Federal and State Affairs Committee\u00a0in retaliation for holding the medical marijuana hearings<\/a>.<\/p>\n Also in 2022, then-House Minority Leader Tom Sawyer (D) and Assistant Minority Leader Jason Probst (D) said they wanted to\u00a0let voters decide on legalizing medical and adult-use marijuana<\/a>\u00a0in the state.<\/p>\n The governor, for her part, 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 Following President Joe Biden\u2019s announcement in 2022 on pardoning people who\u2019ve committed federal marijuana possession offenses and imploring governors to follow suit, Kelly said that her administration is \u201cfocused on legalizing medical marijuana<\/a>\u00a0so that Kansans with severe illnesses no longer have to suffer.<\/p>\n Kelly added that they will \u201ccontinue to consider all clemency and pardon requests based on a complete and thorough review of the individual cases.\u201d<\/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 Biden Campaign Says Trump \u2018Took Marijuana Reform Backwards\u2019 By Rescinding Enforcement Memo, Despite Current Admin Failing To Reinstate It<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Kansas Senate Rejects Motion To Revive Medical Marijuana Legalization Bill<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The Kansas Senate has rejected a motion to revive a medical marijuana legalization bill after a GOP member forced a vote on the issue. The chamber struck down the motion to take up the bill from Sen. Robert Olson (R) in a 12-25 vote on Friday. This comes weeks afterContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":74688,"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\/74687"}],"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=74687"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74689,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74687\/revisions\/74689"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Kansas Senate Rejects Motion To Revive Medical Marijuana Legalization Bill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"