Kentucky Rep. Jason Nemes has announced plans to reintroduce a medical cannabis legalization bill in the upcoming legislative session, according to a Messenger-Inquirer report.
The Kentucky House of Representatives passed House Bill 136 in February, marking the first time a bill to legalize medical cannabis has received a full House vote in the state.
“The support in the House will be even stronger than it was last year,” Nemes told the Messenger-Inquirer. “We have replaced a number of ‘no’ votes with ‘yes’ votes in the Republican caucus due to retirement and defeating Democrats, so we will be stronger in the House. The whole question is what the Senate will do.”
H.B. 136 did not come up for a vote in the Senate last year due to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Messenger-Inquirer reported, but Nemes expects the legislation to clear the House again next year and is “cautiously optimistic” that it will make it through the Senate.
The legislation places heavy oversight on doctors, patients, dispensaries, caregivers and others within a medical cannabis program in the state, according to the news outlet, and caps the amount of THC allowed in cannabis products distributed to patients. The bill would also ban smokable flower, but would allow patients to access vape products and edibles, the Messenger-Inquirer reported.
