29 January 2024
TOPEKA, Kan. (KSNW) — Efforts to legalize marijuana in Kansas could fall short in 2024. While advocates are renewing their push to get legislation through the statehouse, top Republican leaders say the current legislation is a non-starter.
“It’s our representatives’ jobs to represent us… and we have overwhelmingly told them… we support this,” Delaney Jones, a marijuana advocate, said Tuesday during an annual event hosted by the ACLU. “Now, it is your job to make that happen for us.”
However, their plea may not get far this year.
In a pre-session interview with Senate President Ty Masterson, R-Andover, he said the current legislation is a non-starter.
“I can tell you the bill that’s in our committees right now is a non-starter,” Masterson said. “Part of that is you’ve seen the disaster in Oklahoma, right, with cash transactions for land. You’re seeing a lot of gang activity.”
Last year’s medical marijuana bill was put on hold after opponent testimony in the Senate Federal and State Affairs committee. Law enforcement officials in Kansas spoke in opposition to the bill. Masterson also cited how law enforcement is dealing with legalization in other states, like Oklahoma.
“One of their drug enforcement people down there in their agency, he said they’re 98% overgrown … He said 1.8% of their grow can fill every medical card. So, it’s not being sold as medicine, right? So, I think that harms the conversation,” Masterson said. “If you’re having a legitimate conversation, if you’re really talking about legitimate medicine, right, I mean delivering somebody a treatment for something that’s a legitimate illness, that’s a different conversation than what we’ve had. I think what people see when they think of medical, they’re thinking of, you know, palliative care, things like that, which I think there are a majority of people that are in favor of that.”
“It’s down to protecting our population,” he continued.
Masterson also spoke about incidents in Wichita, where middle school students “got sick” after eating edibles.
While Masterson said he’s “open to conversations.” He says the bill will need to “protect our children.”
“What I’m open to is, basically, some type of pilot program or something that is controlled to the point you can test it, but, … the horse isn’t out of the barn, and you can’t ever put it back in,” he said.
Kansas is one of less than a handful of states where marijuana is fully illegal this year. However, neighboring states, like Missouri, have raked in millions of dollars in tax revenue from cannabis sales.
“Missouri has made over $1.3, I think $1.5 billion in 2023,” said Kelly Rippel, co-founder of Kansans for Hemp, during Tuesday’s ACLU event. “We know that Kansas has to be a part of that, knowing that Johnson County and Wyandotte are bordering, and that’s where one of the largest populations of our state is.”