FRANKFORT, Ky. — When the Kentucky Lawmakers return to Frankfort this week, they're expected to consider legalizing medical marijuana.
The bill already cleared the Senate—the chamber where the bill has died in the past—so it'll be up to the House to pass it before the session ends Thursday.
The bill would allow marijuana use, with a written certification from a licensed medical marijuana practitioner for the following conditions:
- any type or form of cancer regardless of stage
- chronic, severe, intractable or debilitating pain
- Epilepsy or another seizure disorder
- Multiple Sclerosis, muscle spasms or spasticity
- chronic nausea or Cyclical Vomiting Syndrome that has proven resistant to other medical treatments
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
The bill would not allow smoking.
It also gives the state two years to develop at Medical Marijuana Program.
You can find the full bill here.
In Northern Kentucky, some customers of Your CBD Store talk with the employees there about this possibility of legalized medical marijuana. The store sells CBD products, which come from the same plant as marijuana, but don't cause a high.
"I think a lot of us, even here, we would love to see cannabis be legalized just because we know how much it could help and how many people it's helped," Ella Kirby, an employee at the store, said.
She said some customers come in looking for something to relieve symptoms like pain or seizures. These are the same kinds of symptoms some use marijuana for.
"If it was legalized and we had dispensaries here there would kind of be a reduced stigma about using cannabis or marijuana products," Kirby said.
During the Senate vote, one of the 11 Senators that voted no was Republican Senator Gary Boswell of Owensboro.
"Cannabis, marijuana, tetrahydrocannabinol in my opinion, is a scourge of the Earth," he said.
To him, the legislation is about one thing.
"In the end, it's about this: money," Boswell said.
Governor Andy Beshear has signaled support for the issue in the past, including in the fall when he signed an executive order legalizing possession of marijuana for medicinal purposes.
