Kentucky legislature enacts legislation to jumpstart medical program!

The 2024 legislative session in Kentucky ended with one piece of medical cannabis legislation passed. HB 829 was a mixed bag of good and bad policy. The positive change was allowing cultivators to begin operations ahead of the January 1, 2025, start date for the program. This should allow medical cannabis products to be available on the launch date for qualified patients. 

The potential issue with this is that localities have more time to decide if they do not want to have cannabis businesses operate within their localities (referred to as an opt-out option). So, in theory, a business could be licensed and start operations and then have the local governing body decide that the business will not be able to operate. It is a risk that the legislature discussed at length but decided to keep in the legislation.

HB 829 also disqualifies most people with a violent felony or a felony drug conviction in the last five years from participating in the program. Cultivation of five or more cannabis plants is a felony under Kentucky law. Multiple bills were filed to end cannabis prohibition completely, but the legislature adjourned for the year and none were able to pass the committee stage.

Kentucky becomes the 38th medical cannabis state!

On March 31, 2023, Gov. Andy Beshear (D), signed medical cannabis legislation into law. Kentucky is now the 38th state with a comprehensive medical cannabis law. On March 30, 2023, in a 66-33 vote, the Kentucky House of Representatives passed SB 47, in a 66-33 vote. The Senate had approved the bill in a 26-11 vote.

Gov. Beshear also signed Executive Order #2022-798 in November 2022 that provides some protections for medical patients who bought cannabis where it is legal. The law takes effect on January 1, 2025. SB 47 does not allow the smoking of raw cannabis but raw cannabis for vaporization is allowed. The list of qualifying conditions includes PTSD and “chronic, severe, intractable, or debilitating pain.” It also provides for additional conditions to be approved administratively. For more details, check out MPP’s summary of the legislation.

Regulations were issued in Spring 2024 and are available on the Kentucky Office of Medical Cannabis website. 

Kentucky is one of 19 states that doesn’t even have a decriminalization law

While 31 other states have either legalized cannabis for adults or reduced the penalty for simple possession to a fine, Kentucky continues to arrest thousands of its residents every year for cannabis possession. Possessing even the smallest amount of cannabis in Kentucky carries up to 45 days in jail and/or a fine of up to $250. In addition to the trauma and disruption of an arrest, criminal records derail lives, making it very difficult to get an education, housing, jobs, and professional and occupational licensing.

Compounding the injustice, cannabis laws are unequally enforced. Half of adults acknowledge having used cannabis, but enforcement is staggeringly unequal. Kentucky also has the worst racial disparities in the nation, with an ACLU report finding Black individuals are 9.4 times as likely to be arrested for cannabis possession as white individuals, despite similar use rates.

In 2023 and 2024, Kentucky lawmakers proposed several bills to legalize cannabis, but none advanced before legislative deadlines. Let your legislators know you want them to stop jailing cannabis consumers in 2025; — or ask them to legalize and regulate cannabis for adults.

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