Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear spoke at a news conference on Oct. 7 and provided an update on the ongoing progress of the state’s medical cannabis program.

“We have established the Medical Cannabis Program, which is the office that is going to do this work, as part of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services,” said Beshear. “The office is preparing to communicate the implementation of this law with a new website that went live today. So, moving forward, you can get updates on the implementation through kymedcan.ky.gov.”

Beshear explained that the website offers “Guidelines and answers to frequently asked questions, for providers, growers, physicians, APRNs, and others with an interest in the program,” as well as information for the public to follow on X and LinkedIn as well. He also announced Sam Flynn as executive director for the medical cannabis program.

In March, Beshear signed a medical cannabis bill, Senate Bill 47, that made it the 38th state to do so. It legalizes cannabis use for patients suffering from cancer, ALS, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, Crohn’s disease, multiple sclerosis, post-traumatic stress disorder, fibromyalgia, glaucoma, and many more conditions. 

The bill also called for the creation of the Team Kentucky Medical Cannabis Workgroup. “This workgroup’s purpose is to study evolving medical cannabis industry policy and the state of medical cannabis policy in our Commonwealth and around the country,” Beshear explained. “This group will include individuals from state and local government, as well as the private sector, with relevant experience in law enforcement, agriculture, healthcare, workforce and economic development.”

Beshear originally named the members of the workgroup back in June 2022, with 15 individuals in varying fields of expertise. The workgroup met for the first time on Oct. 4. Beshear’s push for cannabis goes back to November 2022, when he signed an executive order allowing patients to use medical cannabis as a treatment for specific conditions.

“Kentuckians with qualified medical conditions can continue to seek relief with medical cannabis by going out of state and following all those conditions that you need to carefully read in the executive order,” Beshear concluded at the news event. “All Kentuckians with qualifying medical conditions deserve a chance at a brighter, pain-free future, without ever having to turn to opioids. We know what those did to our state.”

According to recent data from the Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts, presented by the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, more than 300,000 people in the state have been charged with a cannabis-related crime in the last 20 years. That amounts to an estimated two people every hour, every day. Through a wide scope, that means that during the data timeframe (between June 2022-July 2022), 3.1 million people were charged with crimes in Kentucky, and one out of every 10 of those were charged with a cannabis crime. 

“Still, as much of the country has moved to more permissive policies, Kentucky continues to subject people to incarceration, burdensome fines, community supervision, and criminal charges for cannabis crimes. These consequences have lasting, harmful effects on people’s economic security, employment, health, housing, and ability to fully participate in community life. And these consequences often fall disproportionately on low-income and Black and Brown Kentuckians.”

Cannabis possession is the most common charge in the state, which could lead offenders to spend up to 45 days in jail and fined up to $250.

Like many other states, Kentucky is also looking into the potential of other substances to combat the harmful effects of opioids. In June, Kentucky Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission (KYOAAC) chairman and executive director, Bryan Hubbard, announced that $42 million will go toward funding psychedelic research. “Kentucky must overcome the opioid epidemic by any and all means necessary,” Hubbard said. “As we begin the next phase in our fight against this crisis, we must explore any treatment option that demonstrates breakthrough therapeutic potential. Our goal is to investigate the creation of a new standard for treating opioid dependence, so we can finally end this cycle of pain in the Commonwealth.” The funds come from a $26 billion settlement from February 2022 2022 between large pharmaceutical companies and their part in the opioid epidemic.

Last month, the KYOAAC held a five-hour hearing to allow ibogaine patients to speak about their positive experiences using the substance. Twenty-three individuals presented their personal experiences, including former Kentucky Attorney General Ben Chandler, who is now the President and CEO of Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky. “We have not been able to solve the problem, in my judgment,” said Chandler. “It continues to be intractable, and we need as many tools as we can get. And I believe that a drug like ibogaine, from what I’ve read, it has the potential to make the difference that we need to have made—or at least a big difference.”

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The Kentucky Senate on Thursday passed a bill to legalize medical marijuana after years of work by lawmakers and activists. The Senate approved the measure, Senate Bill 47, by a bipartisan vote of 26-11. The legislation will now head to the state House of Representatives, where similar bills to legalize medical marijuana were passed twice in recent years.

Republican Senator Stephen West, a lead sponsor of the bill who has worked to legalize medical marijuana in Kentucky for five years, said that the legislation will give patients with serious medical conditions new options in treatment.

“It’s time for Kentucky to join the other 37 states that allow medical marijuana as an option for their citizens,” West said, adding that those who use cannabis medicinally should be able to do so “without being considered a criminal.”

If passed, Senate Bill 47 would permit patients aged 18 and up with certain qualifying medical conditions including cancer, chronic pain, epilepsy and post-traumatic stress disorder to obtain a doctor’s recommendation to use medical marijuana. The new Kentucky Center for Cannabis at the University of Kentucky, which opened in September of last year, can add additional qualifying conditions if it determines through data and research that patients with the condition are “likely to receive medical, therapeutic, or palliative benefits from the use of medicinal cannabis.”

The bill does not allow patients to smoke cannabis, although it does allow for the sale of raw cannabis flower for vaporization. Other cannabis formulations including capsules, tinctures and topical products are also authorized by the bill. 

Bill Contains Medical Cannabis Regulation Provisions

SB 47 tasks the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services with drafting and implementing regulations to enact the legislation and regulate the production and sale of medical marijuana in the state. The legislation does not include provisions allowing patients to cultivate medical marijuana at home. 

Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer was one of eight senators on the Senate Licensing and Occupations Committee who voted in favor of advancing Senate Bill 47 on March 14. Previously a staunch opponent of legalizing medical marijuana in Kentucky, Thayer recently suggested that his views on the issue are evolving after hearing testimonials from constituents. He told his colleagues on the committee that he voted “for the sake of those who suffer.”

“It’s not very often I change my mind,” Thayer said after the committee voted to advance the bill. “I did on industrial hemp and I did today on medical marijuana. I’m just trying to be a little more empathetic in my old age.”

Senate Bill 47 now heads to the Kentucky House of Representatives, where lawmakers have approved previous measures to legalize medical marijuana twice since 2020. If passed by the full legislature, the bill will be sent to Democratic Governor Andy Beshear, who has repeatedly called on the state legislature to pass medical marijuana legislation.

In June 2022, the governor announced that he was establishing a medical cannabis advisory committee to explore creating a path to legalization. In November, Beshear issued an executive order that decriminalized medical marijuana for patients with specified qualifying conditions. And in January, he repeated his call for state lawmakers to send him a medical marijuana legalization bill in 2023.

Eric Crawford, an activist who has worked to legalize medical marijuana in Kentucky for a decade, shared his surprise after Thursday’s vote by the Senate.

“I’m shocked,” said Crawford. “Now it’s time for the House.”

Under the bill, Kentucky’s medical cannabis program would launch by January 2025. Crawford, who was paralyzed in a vehicle accident 30 years ago, says that cannabis is the only medicine that effectively treats the pain and muscle spasms he endures as a result of the catastrophic injury. Although he has nearly two years before Senate Bill 47 goes into effect, Crawford said that he understands the delay.

“I figured it was gonna take that long to set up the system that we didn’t have,” Crawford said. “Yeah, it’s a long hard wait, but I’m doing what I gotta do.”

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On March 14, Senate Bill 47 was reviewed in the Senate Licensing & Occupations Committee voted 8-3, which will now move forward to the Senate floor.

One of the bill’s sponsors, Sen. Stephen West, spoke at the meeting. “I didn’t intend to ever get into medical marijuana or take a look at the issue,” West explained. He added that two advocates from Mason County, Eric and Michelle Crawford, inspired him to look closer into medical cannabis and its potential benefits.

West reviewed the bill in its current version, which would allow medical cannabis for patients with “any type of cancer regardless of stage, chronic, severe, intractable, or debilitating pain, epilepsy or any other intractable seizure disorder, multiple sclerosis, muscle spasms or spasticity, chronic nausea or cyclical vomiting, post-traumatic stress disorder, and then we added one recently, any other medical condition or disease for which the Kentucky Center for Cannabis finds appropriate.”

Although smoking cannabis would be prohibited, raw cannabis would be permitted for vaping purposes. Cultivating cannabis for personal use would not be permitted either. The program would be managed by The Cabinet for Health and Family Services, and regulations would be finalized by Jan. 1, 2025.

“I know it’s been a long road to this committee and I want to commend you for your vigilance and on this bill,” committee chair John Schnickel said in reply. “I have been working with you and people who have carried this bill before you for years. And you are an example to us all of in class and the way to handle yourself on a controversial issue which people feel passionately about in both directions.”

The committee also heard from longtime advocate Eric Crawford, who became a quadriplegic in the 1990s when he was involved in an automotive accident that broke his neck in three places. Crawford attested to the power and necessity of cannabis to improve his quality of life. “Here I am at the Kentucky state capitol, wearing a tie, trying to get medical cannabis legal for sick people. Medical cannabis relaxes my continuous, uncontrollable, violent muscle spasms. Medical cannabis relieves my constant, never-ending pain. Cannabis helps me. I’ve been crippled for almost 30 years, I know what is best for me. I don’t want to be high, I just want to feel better,” Crawford told the committee.

In March 2022, the Kentucky House passed House Bill 136, which would have legalized medical cannabis. However, it stalled in the Senate, and so advocates decided to start in the Senate for this session. Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer has been opposed to medical cannabis for some time, and remains an obstacle for the movement. In January, he expressed that medical cannabis is a gateway to recreational legalization. “I’ve been hearing about it for years. I know my constituents are for it, but this is a republic, and they elect us to go to Frankfort and make decisions on their behalf,” Thayer said. “If they don’t like it, they can take it out on me in the next election.” Recently, NORML called out Thayer, asking him to support the will of the people and “do the job you were elected to do.

Back in November 2022, Gov. Andy Beshear signed an executive order that allowed patient access to medical cannabis and delta-8. His order went into effect on Jan. 1, 2023, but only through legislation can full medical cannabis legalization become reality. “The executive order isn’t going to make it convenient for anyone on the medical marijuana front. What it will ensure is that they’re not a criminal,” Beshear said in January. “And that’s the limitations that I have in executive power and the limitations that other states have set if we don’t have our own full program. And it’s why it’s so important that the legislature go ahead and pass medical marijuana.”

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