{"id":75209,"date":"2024-05-12T06:24:57","date_gmt":"2024-05-12T14:24:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2024\/05\/12\/new-kansas-cannabis-coalition-pushing-for-legalization-includes-city-council-members-and-former-federal-prosecutor\/"},"modified":"2024-05-12T12:45:19","modified_gmt":"2024-05-12T20:45:19","slug":"new-kansas-cannabis-coalition-pushing-for-legalization-includes-city-council-members-and-former-federal-prosecutor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2024\/05\/12\/new-kansas-cannabis-coalition-pushing-for-legalization-includes-city-council-members-and-former-federal-prosecutor\/","title":{"rendered":"New Kansas Cannabis Coalition Pushing For Legalization Includes City Council Members And Former Federal Prosecutor"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

\u201cOur biggest mission is to make cannabis legalization up front and central this election cycle.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

By Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector<\/strong><\/p>\n

Leaders of a new politically diverse coalition said Tuesday they were committed to supporting candidates for the Kansas Legislature dedicated to ending the state\u2019s prohibition on recreational cannabis and to expunging criminal records tied to marijuana.<\/p>\n

Prairie Village City Council member Inga Selders, founder of the Cannabis Justice Coalition, said it was frustrating to observe inertia of elected officials who failed to deliver \u201cfair and equitable\u201d laws and policies recognizing the social, medical and financial benefits of fully legalizing cannabis.<\/p>\n

The bipartisan coalition would be dedicated to conducting a campaign to educate voters about marijuana. It would emphasize science and facts instead of comedic fiction packaged into Cheech and Chong films in the 1970s and 1980s. That effort would be combined with political advocacy on behalf of state House and Senate candidates aligned with the philosophy of legalization, Selders said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite a majority of Kansans wanting recreational cannabis fully legalized in Kansas, most of our state legislators aren\u2019t listening to the constituents and have turned cannabis reform into a partisan issue, when in fact it isn\u2019t,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The coalition\u2019s board included Barry Grissom, the U.S. attorney for Kansas from 2010 to 2016 under President Barack Obama; Ian Graves, a Prairie Village City Council member and advocate of marijuana decriminalization; and Leslie Byram, an estate planning and probate attorney who regularly works with clients with special medical needs.<\/p>\n

Law enforcement resources<\/strong><\/p>\n

During a news conference, Grissom said Kansas should adopt marijuana laws consistent with the approach of Missouri and Colorado on consumption of cannabis by adults. Colorado implemented recreational marijuana sales in 2014, while Missouri followed in February 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Grissom said work as a federal prosecutor and representing clients in private practice offered a window into criminal justice issues, including the necessity of making wise use of financial resources for law enforcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that spending money on investigation, interdiction, arrest, prosecution, incarceration of individuals involved in some level of use of cannabis is bad public policy,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a waste of taxpayer money. It is a waste of precious resources our law enforcement needs to keep us all safe in our homes, our communities, our houses of worship and our schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A post shared by Inga Selders (@cannabis_justice_coalition)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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He said it was a \u201cgood first step\u201d for the U.S. Department of Justice to recommend marijuana be reclassified as a Schedule III controlled substance<\/a> along with other prescription drugs instead of remaining a Schedule I substance comparable to heroin, LSD and cocaine. It has been obvious that marijuana wasn\u2019t the equivalent of heroin, he said.<\/p>\n

He said the classification change ought to spur research to better understand the medical potential and drawbacks of cannabis. However, he said a better approach would be for the federal government to decriminalize marijuana and allow each state to set its own standard.<\/p>\n

The Pew Research Center says 24 states and the District of Columbia legalized recreational use of marijuana. Fourteen other states have authorized medical consumption of cannabis.<\/p>\n

\u2018Just ridiculous\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Graves, the other Prairie Village council member, said it was silly the Kansas City metropolitan area was divided into two regions where marijuana consumption was legal to the east in Missouri and illegal to the west in Kansas. Despite that border gap, he said, cannabis was in widespread use in both states.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tell you cannabis is being consumed in Johnson County frequently. It\u2019s already here,\u201d said Graves, who considered enforcement of marijuana laws in Kansas a waste of time. \u201cFolks in law enforcement know that this just isn\u2019t something we should be wasting our time on.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the answer for Kansas was passage of a statewide law legalizing cannabis. A piecemeal approach by cities or counties through decriminalization would leave Kansans to contend with a baffling jumble of marijuana ordinances and resolutions, he said.<\/p>\n

In October 2023, Fort Hays State University (FHSU) released its annual \u201cKansas Speaks\u201d survey of public opinion. The FHSU report showed 67.2 percent of participants supported recreational sale of marijuana for people 21 and older.<\/p>\n

\u201cKansas have been surveyed over and over again. The people of Kansas want recreational cannabis,\u201d Graves said. \u201cWhat we need to do is educate people on where their elected officials stand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Decriminalization<\/strong><\/p>\n

Byram, the attorney with a practice serving individuals with disabilities, said she was aware of families with children or other loved ones with epilepsy, seizure disorder, cancer, insomnia, Alzheimer\u2019s and mental health challenges, that relocated to other states where cannabis products could be legally obtained.<\/p>\n

Kansans shouldn\u2019t have to uproot their families to secure necessary medical treatment with cannabis products, she said.<\/p>\n

She said the state could invest tax revenue from cannabis sales to relieve waiting lists for services that should be available to Kansans enrolled in Medicaid. The state also could lean into its agriculture economy by engaging in university research on cannabis, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve educated myself on the decriminalization and the benefits that come from that and I\u2019m largely supportive of legalization for recreational use for that purpose,\u201d Byram said. \u201cA lot of resources can be rerouted to other law enforcement efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Selders said the coalition was committed to legalization of recreational marijuana, rather than take baby steps by first legalizing medicinal cannabis. During the 2024 legislative session, lawmakers considered a bill that would establish a highly regulated five-year pilot program for sales of medical marijuana<\/a>. The bill received a hearing in a Senate committee, but was promptly tabled until 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur biggest mission is to make cannabis legalization up front and central this election cycle,\u201d Selders said.<\/p>\n

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

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Congressional Researchers Say It\u2019s \u2018Likely\u2019 Marijuana Will Be Rescheduled, But It Wouldn\u2019t Fix Federal-State Policy Gap<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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The post New Kansas Cannabis Coalition Pushing For Legalization Includes City Council Members And Former Federal Prosecutor<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\u201cOur biggest mission is to make cannabis legalization up front and central this election cycle.\u201d By Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector Leaders of a new politically diverse coalition said Tuesday they were committed to supporting candidates for the Kansas Legislature dedicated to ending the state\u2019s prohibition on recreational cannabis and toContinue 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],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75209"}],"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=75209"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75210,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75209\/revisions\/75210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}