The Kansas House of Representatives had an impromptu debate on marijuana legalization as it discussed a routine bill aligning the Kansas schedule of drugs, which puts drugs into five categories based on their medicinal use and risk of substance abuse, with the Drug Enforcement Agency.
Rep. Silas Miller, D-Wichita, proposed amending the bill to remove marijuana entirely from the schedule. Currently Kansas and the DEA define marijuana as a schedule 1 drug, which are considered to be devoid of medical use and high risk for substance use disorders.
If rescheduled in Kansas, marijuana would still be illegal federally, but the U.S. government has not strictly enforced its laws in states that have legalized or decriminalized marijuana. In January, the DEA said it was reviewing the classification of marijuana, but some advocates have suggested it should be moved to a schedule 3, which have potential for misuse but are less likely to cause physical dependence.
Twenty-four states fully legalized marijuana and another 14 have legalized medical use or decriminalized marijuana. Kansas is one of the few remaining states that still fully criminalizes simple possession of marijuana.
The House passed a medical marijuana bill in 2021, but it never got a hearing on the Senate floor. A Senate committee also killed a medical marijuana bill in 2023.
House Speaker Dan Hawkins, R-Wichita, asked the House to vote against Miller’s amendment while leaving the door open for future actions on marijuana reform.
“Everybody in this body knows that we have tackled this subject before and we’ll tackle it again,” Hawkins said. “We had our time here and we passed it over the Senate, and it didn’t do anything with it — still hasn’t done anything with it — but I think that they are getting closer and we’ll have our chance.”
But with three years since the last substantive action in the House, several Democrats pounced on the chance to discuss the issue.
“It was definitely brought up by a few members that if we want to have this discussion we should have this discussion, but we have been unable to have this discussion,” Miller said. “This is the first step, this is the first step towards having a better discussion about this or even being allowed to having a better discussion.”
“”t was brought up, if we have this discussion we should have this discussion, but we’ve been unable to,” Miller said.
De-scheduling marijuana wouldn’t create a framework for a legal or medical market for the drug and may not even impact already-existing laws criminalizing the possession of cannabis. Rep. Brenda Landwehr, R-Wichita, who opposed the 2021 medical marijuana bill, said de-scheduling would only lead to confusion in the state.
“It does not appear that this just makes marijuana legal,” Landwehr said. “It just muddies the water. So some people will think it’s legal but then not realize that there’s still criminal laws on the books.”
The amendment failed 80-40 on a vote that largely followed party lines. Four Republicans broke with the party to support the amendment and two Democrats broke to oppose it.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Advocates for marijuana reform force Kansas House debate
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