The governor of Kentucky on Thursday explained how he plans to advance the issue of medical marijuana administratively, criticizing the Senate for failing to heed the will of voters and for “obstructing” reform by refusing to even give a hearing to a House-passed bill this year. Gov. Andy Beshear (D) has made several comments about the possibility of taking executive action on cannabis policy in recent weeks, but with a House-passed medical marijuana legalization bill now dead with the end of the legislative session, he announced plans to make progress on his own. He won’t be unilaterally legalizing cannabis—at least not yet. But he said that the first stage of the plan is to have his staff “begin analyzing options that we may have under the law for executive action on medical cannabis.” Beshear is also convening a “Medical Cannabis Advisory Team” that will “travel around the state and listen in every corner of Kentucky for what you have to say about medical cannabis.” When pressed on the legality of potential broader executive moves to provide patients with medical cannabis access, the governor reiterated that the administration is “looking through our legal options right now.”
Kyle Jaeger, Marijuana Moment, 04/21/2022 13:51:00