“For many years, the failed and irrational Warfare on Medicine has ensured that we’ve got arrested, prosecuted and jailed tens of millions of People for low stage nonviolent drug offenses.”
By Sarah Ladd, Kentucky Lantern
Saying that legalization with out decriminalization is “merely not an choice,” state Rep. Nima Kulkarni on Tuesday launched a constitutional modification to ask Kentucky voters to weigh in on the hashish debate.
Along with the amendment, which might legalize private possession and use of marijuana in Kentucky, the Louisville Democrat additionally launched legislation to codify decriminalization into state legislation.
The modification will ask voters “to determine whether or not they wish to decriminalize hashish possession as much as an oz and cultivation as much as 5 crops for adults 21 and over in our state,” she mentioned throughout a rally within the Capitol Rotunda simply earlier than the Basic Meeting convened in common session.
“For many years, the failed and irrational Warfare on Medicine has ensured that we’ve got arrested, prosecuted and jailed tens of millions of People for low stage nonviolent drug offenses,” Kulkarni mentioned.
She added: “We’ve got the possibility to maneuver ahead in a approach that makes certain that Kentuckians battling ache, with trauma, with opioid dependancy, are capable of entry hashish with out worry of jail or a prison report.”
Becoming a member of Kulkarni within the Rotunda have been representatives from the ACLU of Kentucky, Legislation Enforcement Motion Partnership, Kentucky NORML, Minorities of Medical Marijuana, Kentucky Hemp Farmers Affiliation, Bickett & Boone CBD Firm and the Kentucky Hashish Freedom Coalition.
Kungu Njuguna, a coverage strategist with the ACLU of Kentucky, additionally mentioned decriminalizing marijuana use is a “matter of racial fairness.”
The nationwide ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) has discovered and reported that Black individuals are roughly 4 instances extra prone to be arrested for marrijuana possession than white folks. That jumps to round 10 instances extra possible in Kentucky. That is regardless of use amongst Black and white People being about the identical, in accordance with a 2020 ACLU report.
Kulkarni’s laws is the most recent in a collection of strikes associated to hashish in Kentucky over the previous few months.
Final September, the College of Kentucky launched the UK Hashish Heart to check the well being results, dangers and advantages of hashish use as a medical remedy. The bipartisan Home Invoice 604, which was sponsored by six Republicans and one Democrat, allotted the funding for the middle in 2022.
Gov. Andy Beshear (D) additionally issued an govt order in November that will enable sick Kentuckians to entry no more than eight ounces of medical hashish so long as it’s purchased legally in the USA and the affected person has a certification from a well being care supplier exhibiting they’ve at the very least one eligible situation. These circumstances embrace most cancers, a number of sclerosis and post-traumatic stress dysfunction.
This story was first published by Kentucky Lantern.
Picture courtesy of Chris Wallis // Facet Pocket Photos.