The Kansas Senate is running out of time. If they plan to pass the medical cannabis legalization bill that cleared the House earlier last week.
The GOP-controlled Senate only has days left in this veto session. The leadership has signaled that they do not see the legalization legislation as a priority.
“The Senate is not real high on the issue at this point,” Senate President Ty Masterson (R) told a reporter in a pun-filled text message. Adding, “we may roll it into a joint committee and see if we can weed out the issues.”
In a separate statement from a spokesperson for his office said that the chamber is focusing on passing a budget bill and a school funding measure in the remaining days of this year’s session.
“I can’t imagine we’d take the subject matter up this year,” Masterson said before the House voted to pass the legislation.
If the Senate does nothing with the bill and does not take it up by May 11, it would still be alive for the second half of the legislative biennium. The second half will start in early 2022.
Although if senators make time for it this session and establish a bicameral conference committee to consider the proposal; there are some doubts about if the senate body would approve the legislation. If the Senate defeats the proposal this year. Lawmakers would need to restart the process all over again if they wanted to pass reform next year.
The Breakdown of the Legislation
The bill, if passed by the Kansas Senate, will establish a medical marijuana program for qualified patients. It has around 24 conditions that will make a person eligible for the cannabis program.
Smoking and vaping products will be prohibited along with growing marijuana plants at home.
The state will provide licenses for medical cannabis growers, testing labs, processors, distributors, and retailers. Counties will be able to opt-out of allowing marijuana businesses to operate in their jurisdiction.
Patients will be able to purchase a 90-day supply of cannabis. The dispensaries will be
regulated by the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Also, this department will change its name to the Division of Alcohol and Cannabis Control.
The secretary of the Department of Health and Environment will need to develop regulations to administer the medical cannabis program by July 1, 2023.
The good news for marijuana activists is that Governor Laura Kelly supports medical cannabis and would be expected to sign a bill if it arrived on her desk.
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