Kansas Senate panel struggles with medical marijuana measure

TOPEKA – A Kansas Senate committee wasn’t ready Tuesday to endorse a narrow medical marijuana proposal, even though its members approved a measure to reduce criminal penalties for first- and second-time pot possession.

The Republican-dominated Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee showed its uneasiness by splitting apart the contents of a marijuana bill approved by the House last year. The House bill reduced penalties for marijuana possession and legalized the use of therapeutic hemp oil in treating seizures.

The committee advanced a bill dealing with criminal penalties to the full Senate for debate. It drafted a second bill containing the medical marijuana provisions and forwarded it to the Senate without a recommendation. GOP members expect it to be sent to a committee that deals with health issues.

Legislators are interested in lessening penalties for marijuana possession partly because the state’s prisons are more than full. The Department of Corrections had nearly 9,800 inmates in its custody as of Monday – 77 more than the capacity of state prisons.

The bill would reduce the punishment for first-time misdemeanor possession to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine from a year in jail and a $2,500 fine. A second possession conviction would no longer be a felony, so an offender wouldn’t be sent to a state prison.

“These are nonviolent crimes that I think, probably, we’re dealing with too harshly,” said Sen. Forrest Knox, R-Altoona.

The state is getting pressure from communities as well. Wichita voters last year approved an ordinance reducing penalties within the city for possessing small amounts of marijuana, only to see the Kansas Supreme Court invalidate it last week over a technical issue.

Twenty-three states now allow some form of medical marijuana, according to the National Conference on State Legislatures. Lawmakers also have heard emotional testimony from parents with children suffering severe seizures who say legal drug therapies aren’t working.

“We’re stuck in a place where there’s nothing left for our son,” said Tiffanie Krentz, a Topeka business owner whose 11-year-old son began having severe seizures shortly after his birth.

Republicans emphasized that they weren’t killing the medical marijuana measure.

Several committee members said they want to have more hearings on medical marijuana because they’re not sure that treatments such as hemp oil have been tested enough. Also, the state association for local police chiefs has worried that even a narrow medical marijuana bill would lead to a broader legalization of pot.

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This story was originally published January 26, 2016 at 6:12 PM with the headline "Kansas Senate panel struggles with medical marijuana measure."