Ky. Democrats launch a big marijuana legalization push. But what can actually pass?
Kentucky House and Senate Democrats want to legalize marijuana – and they’re not waiting on Republicans, who dominate the legislature, to back their effort.
Meanwhile, a prominent Republican legislator says his bill that would legalize some forms of medical marijuana is much more likely to pass than Democrats’ far more liberal proposal.
The Democratic legislators announced the L.E.T.T.S. Grow Act on Thursday, which would legalize cannabis for both medical and recreational use.
The acronym stands for legalize, expunge, treat and tax. Rep. Rachel Roberts, D-Newport, said that Kentucky is falling behind 37 other states that have legalized the drug in some form. 18 states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for recreational use.
“Make no mistake: Kentuckians are growing cannabis, they are selling cannabis, they are consuming cannabis,” Roberts said. “We just aren’t regulating it for their safety or benefiting from the tax revenue it should be generating. We are leaving money on the table, and at the same time, we are ignoring the wants of our citizens.”
Roberts said that if enacted into law, the proposal would create up to $100 million in tax revenue per year if sales mirrored those in Michigan and Illinois. A 6% state sales tax would be applied, while local governments could tax sales of the substance up to 5%.
Republican medical bill
Rep. Jason Nemes, a Louisville Republican, agreed with Roberts that Kentucky is “falling behind,” but thinks the Democrats’ bill will be dead on arrival.
He says his House Bill 136, which legalizes some forms of medical marijuana, is much more likely to pass. He claims there’s an “overwhelming majority of support” in both chambers for the bill.
“I don’t think, I know there’s no appetite in the General Assembly for recreational marijuana at this point,” Nemes said. “Medical marijuana is my fight, and that’s the fight where we have the overwhelming majority of support in the House and Senate.”
Key provisions that make the bill more “narrow” than some other states that have legalized include a provision banning the smoking of marijuana and growing it yourself.
Nemes carried a similar bill in 2020 and it passed the House 65-30. It did not get taken up in the Senate, however.
Things have changed in terms of support from now to then, Nemes said – that includes the public and some key Republican lawmakers.
A few months ago, a Gallup poll recorded U.S. support for marijuana legalization at 68%. A 2020 USA Today poll also reported that 59% of Kentuckians supported the measure.
Nemes called the numbers “overwhelming,” and pointed out that nearly every demographic in America supports it. That now includes, he said, Senate President Robert Stivers.
“President Stivers has said a number of times that he acknowledges it does help some people. He lists some conditions and incidentally those conditions are some of the ones in (House Bill 136),” Nemes said. “He said he could support a narrow bill for medical marijuana. My goodness, this is as narrow as I could get it.”
Democrats’ effort
Sen. David Yates, D-Louisville, cosponsored a Senate companion bill to Roberts’ with Sen. Morgan McGarvey, D-Louisville. He emphasized that legalization would “open up the courts,” saying that almost 7,600 Kentuckians were arrested on marijuana-related charges in 2018. He added that legalization would let police reprioritize around “major issues” like violent crime.
The criminalization of marijuana, Yates said, has taken a disproportionate toll on Black Kentuckians.
Black Kentuckians are nine times more likely to be charged with marijuana possession and distribution than white residents according to the Administrative Office of the Courts – more than twice the disparity nationwide.
In Fayette County, Black defendants made up 61% of all marijuana trafficking charges and 46% of possession charges. Only 15% of Fayette County residents are Black, according to the 2020 U.S. Census.
The bill would automatically expunge marijuana-related misdemeanor charges within one year.
Yates also said it would help the health of the state’s jails, with a nod toward his home county’s struggling Louisville Metro Corrections.
The bills propose the creation of a seven-member “Cannabis Control Board,” attached to the Public Protection Cabinet, and a department similar to the state’s Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.
There would also be a 19-member Social Impact Council that would, per the bill, “directly address the impact of economic disinvestment, violence, and historical overuse of criminal justice responses to community and individual needs by providing resources to support local design and control of community-based responses to these impacts.”
That council would get 30% of the state revenue created from marijuana taxation. Roberts said much of it would go towards substance use treatment and grants for education as well as minority-owned small businesses.
Rep. Nima Kulkarni, D-Louisville, filed a bill earlier this year that would make it legal to possess an ounce or less of cannabis plant, but the bill has only Democratic cosponsors and has yet to be assigned to committee.
