Kentucky Moves Closer To Medical Marijuana After House Passes Bill

A measure to strictly regulate medical marijuana passed in the Kentucky House of Representatives over the weekend, opening the door for a new — albeit limited — cannabis market to launch in the United States.

After years of considering but ultimately failing to pass legislation, Kentucky’s Republican-controlled House on Friday overwhelmingly approved a measure allowing doctors to recommend the plant for patients with a number of conditions. Qualifying illnesses for a medical marijuana card — if the current version of the bill is passed by the state senate and becomes law — would include post-traumatic stress disorder, cancer, epilepsy, depression and chronic pain.

The bill also lets medical patients grow the plant at home. Many Democrats joined the Republican members of the Kentucky House’s majority party in passing House Bill 136, 59-34.

“I know real people that had their lives turned around by these products, and a lot of them are living in the closet or living in secrecy because they feel like they’re a criminal,” said Democratic Rep. Al Gentry, according to the Associated Press. “Please, let’s pass this and allow some people to move on and live a happy life.”

Gentry joined Republican Rep. Jason Nemes as one of several co-sponsors of the bill, which would make medical cannabis legal statewide but give county commissions and city councils the opportunity to ban dispensaries locally. Nemes has campaigned for the bill as a boon for the state’s economy.

In addition to bringing in additional tax revenue to state coffers, legal cannabis could eventually create thousands of jobs for residents of the states, Nemes said.

“The plant will be Kentucky grown, Kentucky processed and Kentucky tested, grown by Kentucky farmers on Kentucky land with Kentucky seeds for our Kentucky brothers and sisters as well as Kentucky patients,” he said.

Nemes filed similar bills in 2020 and 2021, the first of which passed the House but never was voted on in the Senate. The 2021 edition of the bill did not advance. Nemes has called on his party’s leadership to have the “courage” to vote on the bill.

Opponents say the plant is a gateway drug to more harmful substances and worry that Kentucky’s cannabis policy would become more lenient as time goes on, eventually becoming recreationally legal.