Kansas Senate holds Medical Marijuana hearings
During the first week of sales earlier this month, over $8 million was spent on recreational marijuana in Missouri. Another four on medical.
For medical marijuana advocates across state lines in Kansas like Kimberly Krueger, it's a sign of what could be. "I think they are welcoming for Kansas patients. I'm watching so much money leave the state and it's going to continue to do so there."
Missouri, Colorado, and potentially Oklahoma could all have recreational marijuana laws by next week if voters in Oklahoma pass State Question 820.
By contrast, Kansas is one of only a couple of states with no laws allowing marijuana use. Krueger says "it is frustrating. Kansans are frustrated, we're frustrated."
On Wednesday and Thursday this week, the Kansas Senate committee on Federal and State Affairs will hold two days of informational hearings on medical marijuana legalization. It's the first hearing on the topic this session.
Senator Oletha Faust-Goudeau, the ranking Democrat on fed and state, says that it's taken this long to get a hearing this session because of the committee having a new chairman. "You know, Kansas, sometimes we're kind of behind on things and, you know, we hear about it all the time where people are going across the state line to purchase those items"
With potentially three states around Kansas having recreational marijuana, she says there is motivation to get things done even if the session is halfway over. "A bill can be drafted quickly and introduced and debated before the session is over. '
Krueger hopes that's true. "They need to act now. I'm tired of waiting, patients are tired of waiting. I don't know how many times or how many years we have to deliver this bad news to the patients that are waiting."
