Kentucky House passes bill legalizing medicinal cannabis

The Kentucky House of Representatives passed legislation legalizing medicinal cannabis on Thursday, just a week after the proposal was introduced by a key legislative committee. The measure, House Bill 136, passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 59 to 34 and will now go to the State Senate for consideration. A similar bill passed the House of Representatives in 2020, but failed to find a hearing in the upper chamber of the state legislature.

Under Republican Rep. Jason Nemes’ measure, patients with one or more specific medical conditions, including any type of cancer, chronic pain, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, and nausea, could receive a medical cannabis recommendation. The legislation also creates a regulatory framework to regulate medical cannabis growers, processors, dispensaries and testing labs.

On March 10, House Bill 136 passed the House Judiciary Committee by a vote of 15-1. In a hearing ahead of the vote, Nemes said the measure would help sick people. He also noted that he is not in favor of legalizing recreational cannabis and has once opposed legalizing medical cannabis. But after talking to patients and experts, he changed his stance on the matter.

“I will never forget that mother who leaned down and touched my hand. She told me what it meant to her child, and everyone walked around the room and said what it meant to them,” Nemes told committee members. “And I thought there are good people here, really good people, and I don’t agree with them. So I started questioning it. I spoke to doctors and did a lot of research on this topic.”

Bill passed after emotional debate

Before Thursday’s vote, members of the House of Representatives debated the bill in a sometimes emotional debate. Rep. Al Gentry, a co-sponsor of the bill, said he has personal experience of patients using cannabis successfully medicinally.

“I know real people whose lives have been transformed by these products, and many of them are in hiding or in hiding because they feel like a criminal,” he said, as quoted by McDowell News.

“Please, let’s go through this and allow some people to move on and have happy lives,” Gentry added.

The bill would introduce four types of regulated medicinal weed companies, including cannabis growers, processors, dispensaries and safety testers. During Thursday’s debate, Nemes stressed to his peers that the legislation would create a new local economy for the bluegrass state, saying the company would be “grown in Kentucky, processed in Kentucky, tested in Kentucky.”

Opponents of the bill expressed fears that allowing medical cannabis in Kentucky would lead to the legalization of recreational cannabis and public health issues, with some citing the thoroughly debunked “gateway drug” theory. Republican Rep. Chris Fugate took the hyperbolic reefer craze to a new level, saying that the “common denominator of 99.9 percent of America’s drug addiction problem started with marijuana.”

“I didn’t come to Frankfurt for alcohol, gambling or marijuana,” added Fugate. “I came here to oppose it.”

“We are asking, as a body, to respond to emotions rather than legal viewpoints,” said Rep. Matt Lockett, who voted against the bill. “Our federal government has declared that marijuana is against the law.”

Bill gets support from Key Senator

Earlier this month, House Bill 136 won the support of Senator Whitney Westerfield, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Despite raising concerns about potential recreational cannabis use by young people, Westerfield said in a social media post that he would support the legislation.

“I also have concerns about the precedent we are setting by ignoring federal law,” Westerfield wrote in a statement on Twitter. “However, I’ve heard too many stories, in my district and outside, from those who have long suffered and their loved ones left behind, that marijuana brought comfort and relief when nothing else worked.”

Nemes told reporters that Westerfield’s endorsement improves the bill’s chances of a Senate-wide vote.

“It’s going to go to the Senate, it’s going to be assigned to his committee, and if you support the chairman, that’s huge, and that’s why Whitney’s support is a game changer,” Nemes said.

Unlike last time, when the Kentucky House passed legislation legalizing medical marijuana, House Bill 136 is expected to be scheduled for a state Senate hearing with Westerfield on board. Nemes hopes the measure will do better this year.

“I don’t know how accurate the numbers are in the Senate, but I’ve met with senators in person and I’m very confident about the odds when we move into the Senate,” Nemes said earlier this month.

If the bill is successful in the Kentucky Senate, it will go to the desk of Republican Gov. Andy Beshear, who has expressed support for legalizing medicinal cannabis.