A Republican leader who said agencies cooperating with an “unlawful expansion” of qualifying conditions for medical cannabis should be prosecuted reached “a new record low” with the comments, Gov. Andy Beshear said Thursday.
This came days after Kentucky House Majority Whip Jason Nemes asked Attorney General Russell Coleman to help ensure agencies “not cooperate” with Beshear’s expansion of qualifying conditions for medical marijuana prescriptions, which he did via executive order in early June.
“I would say to the Governor, and to everyone who supports this: You are jeopardizing the program in its entirety because this General Assembly is not playing around when we say we want the tightest medical marijuana program in the country,” Nemes said on Tuesday during an interim legislative committee meeting.
During his weekly press conference Thursday, Beshear said he was “surprised” by “an attack from one lawmaker who called on the Attorney General to prosecute people dying of a terminal illness for securing medical cannabis. I mean, that’s a complete lack of humanity.”
“I mean, an individual with ALS, you want to prosecute. And that is certainly not leadership, and even for that individual, is a new record low,” Beshear said. “Let me say this: Sometimes we see people make these threats, and in this current culture, I think they think it’s masculinity, but masculinity isn’t the bully on the playground. It’s being the person that stands between the bully and the person they’re picking on.”
“That’s my job,” Beshear added, “to stand in between those bullies and these individuals that have these very serious conditions that are saying ‘just give me something that isn’t addictive, that isn’t opioids, and that can help me.’”
Nemes responds
In Nemes’ Tuesday comments, he said the governor had “skirted that law” by signing an executive order after the General Assembly declined to expand conditions that allow Kentuckians to get medical cannabis.
He specifically said “any organization — any licensee — that participates” in the expansion should be at risk. He didn’t mention patients.
On Thursday, Nemes told the Lantern that Beshear’s comments were “unfair.”
“I said licensee. I’m not talking about a sick person,” he said. “For six years, I’ve put everything I had in that bill and got it passed.”
“I put my heart and soul and everything I had for sick people,” Nemes said. “I’m very proud of this, of getting that bill passed.”
He wants to see conditions expanded in the future, he said, but not before the program is even fully operational.
“I’m not coming at this from the perspective of someone who’s not supportive of the program,” he said. “I’ve proven that, and the governor knows this.”
To Beshear’s argument that the initial law included symptoms that overlap with the expanded conditions, Nemes said “I respect that, we discussed that.”
Ultimately, though, it should be up to the doctors if the symptom is severe enough, he said.
“But even if he’s right…. that’s not for him to decide,” he said. “I want this program to be successful. But what he’s doing right now is he’s jeopardizing it.”
In 2023, the legislature legalized medical marijuana for Kentuckians suffering from chronic illnesses including any type or form of cancer, chronic or severe pain, epilepsy or other intractable seizure disorder; multiple sclerosis, muscle spasms, or spasticity; chronic nausea or cyclical vomiting syndrome; or post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
In early June, Beshear said the law suffered from a “lack of clarity.” He signed an executive order directing the Office of Medical Cannabis to issue an emergency regulation clarifying that Kentuckians have access to medical cannabis if they have these additional conditions: Terminal illness, sickle cell anemia, ALS, Parkinson’s disease, HIV, AIDS, Huntington’s disease, muscular dystrophy, wasting syndrome, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, neuropathies, severe arthritis, fibromyalgia and glaucoma.
