Kentucky legislative leaders said in a recent joint interview that they are open to considering legalizing medical marijuana during the state’s 30-day legislative session that began this week, but lawmakers from both parties rejected a plan by Governor Andy Beshear ( D) that would impose a drug tax.
“If you are taking this approach, which is a money generator, then you are not thinking about medicinal or therapeutic value,” said Senate President Robert Stivers II (R). To impose a tax on marijuana genuinely intended for medical use, he added, would be “treating it differently from any other drug, which in itself is wrong”.
Stivers, a longtime medical marijuana skeptic, said he was recently convinced of the therapeutic benefits of THC in certain treatments, although he did not support legalization in this session. “I don’t object to that,” he said, “but I really think that leadership – and I hate doing that – needs to come from the federal government.”
“We are going to get the appropriate protocols and have the research and development as we did last year with the vaccines for COVID-19,” added Stivers. “Just as we would do with Moderna, or anything else, we are going to examine the study, we are going to get blind samples, we are going to make sure we are doing it right.”
Stivers and other key lawmakers, including House Speaker Dave Osborn (R), Senate minority leader Morgan McGarvey (D) and House minority leader Joni Jenkins (D) spoke during an interview with the station Kentucky PBS KET which aired on Monday.
The state House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a medical marijuana legalization bill last year, but Senator Whitney Westerfield (R), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, paralyzed the bill on the committee. The coronavirus pandemic broke out in the same month, in March, and the Senate never returned to measure.
Senate minority leader Morgan McGarvey (D) said in a KET interview this week that “it’s past time for medical marijuana in Kentucky” and asked his colleagues to simply allow a legalization bill to be voted on in this session.
“I would just like to see this in a vote,” he said. “If it passes the Senate floor, great. If it doesn’t pass the Senate, that also says something. “
See lawmakers discussing medical marijuana, around 32:40 in the video below:
No Senate legalization bill was presented at this session, but McGarvey said that some in his party are considering it.
A February survey found that nine out of 10 Kentucky residents supported the legalization of medical marijuana and almost six out of 10 (59 percent) thought marijuana should be legal “under any circumstances”.
McGarvey agreed with his Republican colleagues that if marijuana is legalized, it should not be subject to taxes. “I don’t think we should see medical marijuana itself as a recipe producer for the state,” he said. “There will be some prescription that will come from allowing medical marijuana to be grown and grown and then distributed here, but we have a ban on taxing medicines in Kentucky, and that is something that I really support.”
This stance conflicts with Governor Beshear’s proposal to legalize medical marijuana and tax the drug to generate revenue for the state. “If it is not a positive recipe,” he said in a previous interview to KET recorded on December 28, before the legislative session, “you cannot support that administrative arm that is needed to ensure it is done the right way.”
The tax would not necessarily be levied on patients at the point of sale, the governor said, but it could be levied on producers or retailers. Still, any tax would likely increase costs for patients.
Beshear said the money is needed to cover expenses like inspections and inspection. Last year’s bill, he said, suggested that lawmakers did not understand the capacity of state regulatory agencies.
“We certainly hope, given that the application of this law will fall to the executive branch,” said the governor, “that they will talk to us about where to house it and how to do it effectively.”
Watch the governor discuss medical cannabis, around 36:25 in the video below:
Meanwhile, bipartisan House legislators seemed to recognize in the KET interview that the main political obstacle to legalization is in the Senate.
“Our caucus has been behind this for many, many sessions,” said Jenkins, Leader of the Minority Chamber, “and nothing has changed in that.”
Mayor Osborne suggested that medical cannabis would likely move through his chamber again and that “there is some hope that the Senate will accept it”.
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“At the end of the day, I think the overwhelming majority of people in our caucus, in our body, in our chamber, are tired of turning sick people into criminals,” he said. “You know, we prescribe too many narcotics and opioids every day, with far greater consequences.”
Osborne also joined the chorus of lawmakers who were opposed to drug taxation. “I totally disagree with the governor about taxation,” he said. “We do not charge taxes on medicines in this state. It is inhumane to tax medicine. We made this statement as a tax policy years and years ago … To open this debate, we would have to open the debate on the taxation of pharmaceutical products completely. “
Like most American states, Kentucky exempts prescription drugs, but not over the counter. Although marijuana is not regulated as a prescription drug, a medical marijuana law would likely require patients to obtain a doctor’s recommendation as much as they would with a prescription.
At the federal level, drug reform observers have been watching Kentucky closely in part because of hopes among some reformers that any form of legalization could encourage US Senator Mitch McConnell (R), who represents the state, to relax his position on cannabis. McConnell has been a consistent obstacle to legalization in the Senate and was widely expected to be a deciding factor for the chamber to hear marijuana legislation in 2021.
Victories this week for Democrats in the second round of the Georgia election for two US Senate seats, however – which seemed likely on Wednesday morning – would remove McConnell from his position as the Senate majority leader, significantly lessening his influence. national cannabis policy and allowing Democrats to move more easily into cannabis reform.
“If Democrats win those two seats,” said Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) last month, “I’m pretty confident that you’ll see – perhaps not the main legislation I’m looking for – but you’ll see a relaxing one.”
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