Kentucky’s Medical Marijuana Bill May Not Be The Best We Have, But It Needs To PassPosted by On


It doesn’t take a policy wonk or even a jaded journalist to understand that the Republican supermajority that holds all of the cards in the Kentucky legislature is intent on playing their heavy hand toward regressive, grandstanding bills to attack issues like LGBTQ rights, abortion and schools.   

The old-school Republican hardliners and the new-age terrifying fringe right-wingers are, like always, looking to tear down existing structures — and make up problems where there aren’t any — just to enhance their tactics of fear, appease their base, then rinse and repeat. 

The one surprising outcome from this year’s session so far is that a real, yet narrow, path has seemed to emerge for medical marijuana, although not exactly a super progressive one.

Rep. Jason Nemes, a Republican from Louisville, who has been championing Kentucky medical marijuana legislation for the past few years, recently achieved his biggest breakthrough yet — support from a powerful Senator who once opposed his bill.

For the 2022 General Assembly, Nemes filed House Bill 136, a restrictive, 138-page piece of legislation that would allow medical marijuana only for certain conditions, including cancer, chronic pain, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, nausea or vomiting and post traumatic stress disorder. 

He introduced a similar bill during the 2020 session. It passed the House, but was never considered in the Senate, with several members of the chamber’s leadership skeptical of…

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It doesn’t take a policy wonk or even a jaded journalist to understand that the Republican supermajority that holds all of the cards in the Kentucky legislature is intent on playing their heavy hand toward regressive, grandstanding bills to attack issues like LGBTQ rights, abortion and schools.   

The old-school Republican hardliners and the new-age terrifying fringe right-wingers are, like always, looking to tear down existing structures — and make up problems where there aren’t any — just to enhance their tactics of fear, appease their base, then rinse and repeat. 

The one surprising outcome from this year’s session so far is that a real, yet narrow, path has seemed to emerge for medical marijuana, although not exactly a super progressive one.

Rep. Jason Nemes, a Republican from Louisville, who has been championing Kentucky medical marijuana legislation for the past few years, recently achieved his biggest breakthrough yet — support from a powerful Senator who once opposed his bill.

For the 2022 General Assembly, Nemes filed House Bill 136, a restrictive, 138-page piece of legislation that would allow medical marijuana only for certain conditions, including cancer, chronic pain, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, nausea or vomiting and post traumatic stress disorder. 

He introduced a similar bill during the 2020 session. It passed the House, but was never considered in the Senate, with several members of the chamber’s leadership skeptical of…



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