Medical Marijuana Just Took A Giant Step Toward Legalization In Kansas | KCUR 89.3

TOPEKA, Kansas – Kansas took its first big step towards legalizing medical marijuana on Thursday when the Conservative Republicans who dominate the State House passed bill that follows a national trend and goes against federal law.

Kansas-style legalization would handle everything from patient access to cannabis advertisements.

The historic debate lasted nearly five hours and sparked divisions among Republicans. The bill went 79-42 and goes to the Kansas Senate. Some lawmakers argued that legalizing medical marijuana was in line with the philosophies of small governments.

“It’s time,” Bunker Hill told Republican Rep. Troy Waymaster. “It is the right step forward for the state of Kansas.”

Opponents such as Rep. Tatum Lee-Hahn, a Republican from western Kansas, argued that legalizing medical marijuana would create the conditions for recreational use.

“In 10 years if we’re driving down Main Street and there are two and three pharmacies on each block, that’s up to us,” said Lee-Hahn. “We did that.”

Rep. Blake Carpenter, a Conservative Republican who guarded the bill on the floor of the house, called it a conservative option for legalization.

“The government is becoming a nanny state,” he said. “We really need to get back to individual responsibility and trust that people will responsibly use this medicinal marijuana at home to help their seizures or any other problems they are having.”

Kansas remains one of the few states where medical marijuana remains illegal.

A conservative calculation

The bill was long overhauled and ended with restrictions to attract the most conservative members of the legislature. Legislators changed the bill Thursday to allow counties to effectively reject medical marijuana by banning breeders, dealers and pharmacies.

In most cases, patients would need a referral from a doctor with whom they have had a relationship for six months.

More than 20 medical conditions are listed for use with the medication. These include Parkinson’s, post-traumatic stress disorder, and epilepsy.

The bill would allow additions to the list and set the rules for making changes. For example, people might ask an advisory committee to add more. After review, the committee could make a recommendation to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment as to whether additional conditions should be added to the list. The decision would ultimately be made by the state health minister.

A change added Thursday requires the conditions on the list to be reviewed every three years, with the potential to be removed if evidence of medical marijuana benefits changes.

The bill also includes restrictions on the forms of medical marijuana available. In short, nothing that humans could smoke or vape. In the bill passed by the House of Representatives on Thursday, patients could only get their medical marijuana as food, oils, tinctures, plasters or plant material.

Doctors would also need to obtain specific state certification to recommend medical marijuana.

Employers could continue to ban workers from using marijuana even if they were legally obtained it for medical reasons. You could still discipline or fire drug test workers and people for violating a no-marijuana policy.

Gateway to recreational marijuana

However, many conservatives opposed the legalization of a so-called “gateway drug”. Others, like Rep. Pat Proctor, a Leavenworth Republican, said legalization was a “death knell” for his city.

“This bill puts us on the path towards recreational marijuana,” he said. “If you don’t believe this, I would ask why we are selling it in pharmacies instead of pharmacies. Why do we grow it in buildings instead of farms? Why do we dispense it in a form other than pill form? “

But Republicans like freshman Rep. Samantha Poetter said the ban isn’t working.

“The reality today is that marijuana is in Kansas,” she said, “whether you want to admit it or not.”

She said 80% of voters in her mostly rural district are in favor of medical marijuana.

“(But) instead of letting those who benefit from it do so legally,” she said, “we have to force veterans, cancer patients and many others to buy a drug off the street, unregulated and know by whom.” Where.”

Republican dueling factions offered a litany of amendments ranging from restricting the prescription of medical marijuana to pharmacies instead of pharmacies to advertising domination.

Democrats offered just a handful of amendments that attempted to fix a percentage of pharmacy or growing business licenses that must be given to low-income “stock groups” like Black, Latino or Kansans.

“This is to recognize that not everyone in this state can get the capital open now and many families have someone who is currently incarcerated for doing exactly what we are going to issue these licenses for.” said Rep. Jo Ella Hoye.

This determination failed 43-68.

MP Gail Finney, a Wichita Democrat suffering from lupus, also received legislature support to add lupus to the list of medical marijuana-eligible diseases.

The fight to legalize medical marijuana in Kansas could be neglected this year. Senate President Ty Masterson said earlier this week it was too late for the Senate to look at a bill he hadn’t worked on this year. Even so, the bill would be ready to move forward in the 2022 session.

Governor Laura Kelly would likely endorse the bill if she got to her desk. She suggested an entirely different plan at the beginning of the session, but said she generally supported legalizing medical cannabis in Kansas.

“I want Kansans to get the treatment they need here in their home state,” she said earlier this year, “and not have to go anywhere else.”

Stephen Koranda contributed to this report.

Abigail Censky is the Kansas News Service’s political reporter. You can follow her on Twitter @AbigailCensky or email her at abigailcensky (at) kcur (dot) org.

The Kansas News Service is a collaboration between KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW, and High Plains Public Radio that focuses on health, the social determinants of health, and their relationship to public order. Kansas News Service stories and photos can be republished by the news media for free with proper attribution and a link to ksnewsservice.org.