It’s time, Kansas Legislature: Legalize medical marijuana | Editorial
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly says she wants to pay for expanding Medicaid by legalizing and taxing medical marijuana.
While details of the plan are unclear, the concept makes sense, and Kansas lawmakers should get behind it.
Kansas is one of only three states in the country that has not legalized medical marijuana, despite a recent poll showing more than two-thirds of Kansans support going even further.
According to last fall’s Kansas Speaks survey, a statewide public opinion poll conducted by Fort Hays State University, about 67% of respondents supported legalizing and taxing recreational — not just medicinal — marijuana for people 21 and older.
The same survey showed that more than 63% of respondents supported expanding Medicaid in Kansas.
A majority of our state’s residents believe more low-income Kansans should have access to the Medicaid safety net.
They also agree it’s time that Kansans suffering from chronic pain, cancer-related nausea, glaucoma, arthritis and other conditions should have legal access to medical marijuana, the way they do in 47 other states.
Predictably, Republican legislators are rejecting the idea. More troubling, though, is their downright insulting image of how this could go:
“Governor Kelly envisions a Kansas where you can choose not to work and the taxpayers will foot the bill for you to stay home and smoke supposedly medical marijuana,” House Majority Leader Dan Hawkins said Monday.
Really, Rep. Hawkins? You think hardworking Kansans are just counting the days until medical marijuana is legalized so they can quit their jobs and get high all day? Do you truly think so little of your constituents?
For years now, Republican legislators have balked at the idea of expanding Medicare, which is permitted under the Affordable Care Act, because they say it costs too much. Last year’s proposal went nowhere because of a showdown over abortion.
If Kansas expands eligibility to an estimated 165,000 low-income residents, the federal government would pay 90% of the costs; the state would pick up the remainder.
Kelly’s proposal would pay for Medicaid expansion — and more. That is reason enough to support it.
Finally legalizing medical marijuana is an added bonus.
Missouri voters approved medical marijuana with a constitutional amendment in 2018, and marijuana sales began in the Kansas City area last fall. Oklahoma also regulates medical marijuana, and our neighbor to the west was the first in the nation to experiment with legal weed.
Kansas can and should learn from their experience, which hasn’t been the nightmarish descent opponents fear.
Advocates of medical marijuana, including a Garden City woman at the center of the debate five years ago, say it’s absurd to stigmatize medical marijuana when legal alcohol kills and injures far more people.
It’s also absurd to deny medical marijuana to the sick and dying while prescription pain relievers continue to take a deadly toll.
The governor’s plan makes sense on both fronts — expanding health care to needy Kansans, and allowing medical marijuana to those who need it.
Lawmakers shouldn’t resort to just saying no. They should work out details and get it done.