Medical marijuana legalization in Kansas dead for 2023, Republican says

A key Kansas Senate Republican proclaimed the potential legalization of medical marijuana dead Thursday, saying his committee had "bigger fish to fry" and that outstanding questions on the policy's merits remained.

The development, which came after two days of hearings on the issue, will mark 2023 as the third straight year where the issue of legalization languished in the Senate.

It will be viewed as a major blow for advocates, who hoped that a more robust lobbyist effort and popular support for legalization across the state would be enough to get a bill to Gov. Laura Kelly's desk.

But Sen. Mike Thompson, R-Shawnee, told reporters that it wasn't to be, with his comments coming moments after the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee he chairs voted to table the bill in an unscheduled move.

"You've got all these questions that go unanswered," Thompson said. "We've got bigger fish to fry at this point."

In moving to table the bill, Sen. Alicia Straub, R-Ellinwood, said, "We really need to protect our children and I don't think we're ready to work this bill."

"This definitely needs to be given a lot of thought," Straub said.

More:Marijuana opponents descend on Kansas Statehouse, as hopes for legalization bill dim

Thompson has been skeptical of the prospects of legalization, calling a pair of hearings earlier this month where opponents of the idea exclusively presented and urged lawmakers against passing any bills.

While the subsequent debate over the bill on Wednesday and Thursday were more even-handed, Thompson said he was sympathetic to the concerns presented by law enforcement and others. Those groups argued medical marijuana would create a black market for the drug and that it had few medical benefits, though research would refute that point for some conditions.

Thompson said the bill, drafted following a 2022 special committee during the Legislature's annual break, was "as close to full-on recreational as a version of medical that you could possibly get" — even though experts said the proposal for Kansas was far more restrictive than policies passed in other states, such as neighboring Oklahoma.

"This bill wasn't a serious bill to begin with," Thompson said.

The move also comes weeks after Missouri began allowing the sale of recreational marijuana, with significant cross-border cannabis purchasing expected in the greater Kansas City area.

More:Kansas lawmakers must decide who will thrive with medical marijuana — if bill even advances

In 2021, the Kansas House took the historic step of approving a bill to legalize medical cannabis, a move that seemed to put the state on the precipice of joining 37 other states with a public-access medical marijuana program.

Senate Bill 135, the 2023 proposal, would only allow non-smokeable forms of marijuana, have a list of around 20 conditions that would make an individual eligible for a medical marijuana card and have relatively high fees for grower or dispensary licenses.

The bill's author, Sen. Jeff Longbine, R-Emporia, said he was frustrated that lawmakers did not tell anyone they planned to take up the bill Thursday.

Getting a proposal through the Senate, he said, would potentially require years of work and, perhaps, a change in the body's makeup.

"Quite honestly, it may take another election cycle before this bill is considered strongly," Longbine said. "We as elected officials most often hear from our constituents and do our viewpoints as we are running for re-election."

In a social media post Thursday afternoon, Gov. Laura Kelly, a proponent of medical cannabis, urged constituents to contact legislators and get them to reverse course.

"I am disappointed that some legislators are saying they don’t want to move forward with legalizing medical marijuana this year – effectively turning their backs on our veterans and those with chronic pain and seizure disorders," Kelly said.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Medical marijuana bill dead for 2023 in Kansas, key Republican says