Kansas lawmakers from each chambers met on Wednesday to start out discussing a path ahead for medical marijuana legalization within the state.
The convention committee convened at some point after negotiators have been appointed to finalize medical hashish reform laws. Whereas no motion was taken by the six-member panel, the lawmakers heard a run-down of the largely technical variations between a invoice that handed the Home final yr and a measure filed within the Senate this yr.
Advocates are optimistic that the convening of the convention committee implies that legislators intend to ship a ultimate invoice to the governor, probably inside days.
Most of Wednesday’s assembly was led by a staffer who defined how the Home-passed substitute of SB 158 differs from an analogous Senate invoice, SB 560, that was mentioned in a number of committee hearings final month.
Members are anticipated to convene once more on Thursday to proceed working the laws, however the total expectation is {that a} deal on the reform proposal is inside attain. The plan is to include no matter language is agreed upon right into a separate, unrelated legislative vehicle that already cleared each chambers so as to expedite passage.
In any case, the convention report will nonetheless have to be accepted on the ground of every chamber so as to attain the governor’s desk.
As Rep. John Barker (R), who chairs the Home Federal and State Affairs Committee, stated at Wednesday’s preliminary meeting, the hashish proposals are “the identical in lots of areas,” together with key provisions associated to licensing necessities and regulatory authority. Most of the variations concern efficient dates and different technical issues.
Right here’s an outline of the important thing provisions the place the payments overlap:
Sufferers with any of greater than 20 qualifying situations—together with most cancers, glaucoma, a number of sclerosis, Parkinson’s illness, post-traumatic stress dysfunction, and autoimmune issues—can be eligible for medical hashish.
Sufferers can be entitled to acquire a 30-day provide of medical hashish merchandise at a time.
Possession of as much as 1.5 ounces of marijuana by an individual who isn’t registered as a affected person can be decriminalized, punishable by a most high quality of $400.
Sufferers’ medical hashish suggestions can be legitimate for 90 days, after which level a doctor might renew the suggestions for 3 extra durations. Then extensions might be approved following a bodily examination of the affected person yearly.
Medical hashish gross sales can be topic to the state gross sales tax of 5.75 p.c, with the choice of including a neighborhood tax.
A number of regulatory our bodies can be answerable for administering this system. The state Division of Well being and Setting, Board of Therapeutic Arts, Board of Pharmacy and a renamed Alcohol and Hashish Management division would every play a task within the rules.
The laws would additionally set up a medical marijuana advisory committee to assist oversee this system and subject suggestions.
The invoice requires 5 totally different license sorts: cultivators, processors, laboratories, distributors and retailers. Individuals can be rendered ineligible for a medical marijuana licenses in the event that they’ve been convicted of a felony, except that conviction was expunged no less than 10 years earlier than the appliance is submitted.
There would even be a 35 p.c THC cap on marijuana plant materials.
Counties would have the ability to enact native bans on allowing marijuana retailers from working inside their jurisdictions by way of the undertake of a decision.
With respect to fairness provisions, there doesn’t look like an express pathway for expungements.
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Listed below are the primary variations between the payments:
Efficient dates are pushed again within the Senate bill, reflecting the later introduction of the laws in comparison with the House-passed measure.
The Senate invoice expands the checklist of qualifying situations for medical marijuana to incorporate “some other power, debilitating or terminal situation that, within the skilled judgment of a doctor licensed on this state, can be a detriment to the affected person’s psychological or bodily well being if left untreated.”
There can be a reciprocity provision that permits out-of-state medical hashish sufferers to buy marijuana from Kansas dispensaries within the Senate measure, whereas the Home proposal solely supplies reciprocity with respect to possession.
The Home invoice would require a affected person to have an ongoing relationship with a doctor for no less than six months earlier than receiving a hashish advice. SB 560, in the meantime, says {that a} advice might be issued on the preliminary go to.
The Home measure included an fairness provision that required no less than 15 p.c of marijuana licensees to minority candidates. There’s no such provision within the Senate laws.
Individuals might get hold of a medical hashish license in the event that they’ve been a Kansas resident for no less than two years beneath SB 560. That requirement is 4 years within the Home measure.
The charges to use for or renew licenses for all license sorts are considerably increased within the Senate invoice.
There are security-related necessities for marijuana companies within the Senate proposal that weren’t included within the Home measure.
As Sen. Robert Olson (R), chair of the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee, acknowledged in the beginning of Wednesday’s bicameral assembly, the aim was to start out “engaged on some frameworks” for a medical hashish program within the state—a primary step towards reaching consensus. There was minimal dialogue past the factual, comparative overview of the 2 payments.
Medical marijuana is enormously well-liked in Kansas. Final yr, the Home handed medical marijuana. At the moment’s convention committee is the Senate & Home assembly to agree on a method ahead with marijuana legalization.
It is good for the economic system & nice for ailing Kansans. #ksleg
— Kansas Home Democrats (@KSHouseDems) April 27, 2022
Advocates have spent years pushing for the reform. Kansas is an outlier within the state-level legalization motion—one among simply three states within the U.S. with none regulated entry to hashish.
Individually, Home Minority Chief Tom Sawyer (D) and Assistant Minority Chief Jason Probst (D) stated in January that they are going to be introducing proposals to let voters determine on legalizing medical and adult-use marijuana within the state.
Gov. Laura Kelly (D), for her half, needs to see medical hashish legalization enacted, and she or he stated earlier this yr that she “completely” thinks the invoice might move if “every part else doesn’t take up all of the oxygen.”
She beforehand pushed a separate proposal that will legalize medical hashish and use the ensuing income to assist Medicaid enlargement, with Rep. Brandon Woodard (D) submitting the measure on the governor’s behalf.
Kelly has she stated she needs voters to place strain on their representatives to get the reform handed.
The governor additionally stated in 2020 that whereas she wouldn’t personally advocate for adult-use legalization, she wouldn’t rule out signing the reform into legislation if a reform invoice arrived on her desk.
Learn the medical hashish comparability document that conferees reviewed beneath:
Picture courtesy of Mike Latimer.