Medical marijuana has taken a crucial step in passing in Kentucky. Though the bill is barebones and won’t allow users to smoke the flower, it will provide much-needed relief for those who use cannabis for pain or sickness relief.
House Bill 136 passed the Judiciary Committee on March 10 and now heads to the House floor. Rep. Jason Nemes (R-Louisville) sponsored a similar bill in 2021, but due to a shortened session and lack of support from Sen. Whitney Westerfield (R-Crofton), who chairs the Senate judiciary committee. The bill died in the COVID-shortened 2021 session.
“I think the debate is over as to whether medical cannabis helps people,“ Nemes said. “I don’t think there’s anybody, even the staunchest opponents, that say that it doesn’t help some people.”
But, while the majority of opponents believe that it helps some people, there are still those who have objections to the bill, including Northern Kentucky Rep. Kim Moser (R-Taylor Mill), who said the feedback she gets from doctors is that they don’t know how to dose it and prescribe it.
“I want cannabis products to be dispensed and dosed and to really understand the qualifying medical conditions that it can help with,” Moser said. “We need to know what the drug interactions are. I think research will allow for the study of cannabis or CBD to really fully understand the differences.”
Moser also said this proposal creates a “bureaucracy” and doesn’t understand how it’s funded.
Fellow House colleague Rep. Rachel Roberts (D-Newport) introduced more comprehensive legislation in February that would allow for recreational and medicinal marijuana. Roberts understands that her legislation is unlikely to pass this session due to the current conservative make-up of the legislature, which has Republican supermajorities in both chambers.
“136 is a medical-only cannabis bill, which would allow certain people with very limited diagnoses to access cannabis as medicine and also in very limited ways,” Roberts said. “No one could grow it at home. No one could smoke flower.”
The bill would allow ingestibles, but it also wouldn’t expunge criminal records, which is a central tenant of Robert’s legislation. She said it also wouldn’t create any tax revenue, with only limited parties being able to profit, such as medical providers.
“If passed, House Bill 136 would be the most restrictive medical cannabis bill in the United States,” Roberts said. “I would love to see it include many more diagnoses. For instance, ALS is not included as a diagnosis. Parkinson’s Disease is not included as a diagnosis.”
The list of qualifying medical conditions includes:
-Any type or form of cancer, regardless of the stage
-Chronic, severe, intractable, or debilitating pain
-Epilepsy or any other intractable seizure disorder
-Multiple sclerosis, muscle spasms, or spasticity
-Nausea or vomiting;
While Roberts doesn’t believe an incremental approach is correct for Kentucky, she understands it’s the best the Commonwealth can do with the current make-up of the legislature. But, she does believe that public pressure is starting to mount on legislators.
An essential piece of the legislative puzzle is in the Senate, where the bill previously died. Sen. Westerfield seems to have changed his opinion on the bill, and if HB136 passes the House, it will first face his Senate Judiciary Committee. The outcome appears more positive than the last session.
“I will support Rep. Nemes’s HB136,” Westerfield said in a statement. ”I continue to have concerns about the risk of increased access to marijuana., particularly among youth and young adults for whom it remains a recreational and gateway drug. I also have concerns about the precedent we’re setting by ignoring federal law. However, I’ve heard too many stories, in my district and out, from those long-suffering and their loved ones left behind, that marijuana brought comfort and relief when nothing else worked.”
