FRANKFORT, Ky. — Kentucky Democrats want to legalize marijuana, filing multiple bills this week that would allow it for medical or recreational use.
What You Need To Know
- Kentucky Democrats plan on pursuing multiple bills this session to legalize marijuana
- An effort to legalize medical marijuana passed in the House in 2020, but didn’t get a vote in the Senate
- Senate President Robert Stivers said he’s open to medical marijuana, but wants to see more thorough studies
House Speaker David Osborne (R-Prospect) voted in favor of a medical marijuana bill in 2020, so he’s at least open to that idea, but where does Senate President Robert Stivers (R-Manchester) stand?
“I’m not opposed to it, but we need to do it in a way that’s measured,” Stivers said Friday.
Stivers said he has read studies on the positives of medical marijuana, but questions how thorough they are, and he wants to see more.
“No drug is really good for you, but you take that drug because it has a better impact than the alternative,” he said. “So once that’s there and somebody can show me those type of guidelines, I’m fine with doing something with marijuana for the purpose of being medicinal.”
Rep. Rachel Roberts (D-Newport) filed a bill in the House to make marijuana legal for recreational purposes.
“Make no mistake: Kentuckians are growing cannabis, they are selling cannabis, they are consuming cannabis,” she said this week. “We just aren’t regulating it for their safety or benefiting from the tax revenue it should be generating.”
Stivers said recreational marijuana likely won’t go anywhere.
“I don’t think this state’s ready to move, and I haven’t seen many states go to the area — many states — to be at just recreational,” he said.
And he said other states that have passed legal marijuana taxed it too heavily and didn’t eliminate the criminal market.
Other Senate Republicans haven’t been so supportive of marijuana legalization: Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer (R-Georgetown) said he won’t vote for any marijuana bill this session during an appearance on KET last month, even though he admitted most of his constituents support the idea.
“If they don’t like it, they can take it out on me in the next election,” he said.
Recreational marijuana bills have been filed in the past and never went anywhere. Rep. Jason Nemes (R-Louisville) plans to pursue his own medical marijuana bill this year, too, similar to what cleared the House in 2020 but didn’t receive a vote in the Senate.