SB 155, The Cannabis Compassion and Care Act, was brought up to be worked by the Federal and State Affairs Committee.
An amendment was offered to eliminate the language of SB155, and replace it with the language from SB151, titled Eliminating criminal and professional penalties for non-intoxicating cannabinoid medicines. The language in SB151 states that this is “AN ACT concerning non-intoxicating cannabinoid medicine; eliminating criminal and professional penalties for recommending, dispensing, distributing or possessing non-intoxicating cannabinoid medicines and related paraphernalia.”
What this does is create a platform where Kansas residents can no longer obtain, own, ingest, etc., what is currently legally available, CBD oil. Under this act, it would require a doctor’s prescription and only be accessible through a licensed pharmacy. Anyone found to be in possession of, or administering to someone not prescribed, CBD would be held criminally liable.
There is no exact description of what a “non-intoxicating cannabinoid” is within the bill, so we
can only be left to assume that none of this legislation would include any THC, so it is also our assumption that this would be an isolated CBD product. Therefore this is actually a step backwards for patients, not forward.
The amendment passed with a split vote, and the amended bill passed out of the committee unanimously.
The good new is that this does not affect the Kansas Safe Access Act at all. We are in a different committee entirely with our bill, and look forward to its progression in the future.
The KSAA is both comprehensive, and well regulated. It is based on many months of research into the rapidly evolving landscape of cannabis law, technology, environmental impact, and medical research. We worked with experts in fields across the industry. It has met all recommendations of the Kansas Health Institute’s health assessment impact study, and met all guidelines of FOCUS, the largest cannabis industry regulatory group.
It has also been our intention to address the concerns of lawmakers, expressed to us over the last few sessions. We seek to address those concerns via regulation, packaging requirements and educational outreach programs.
We also wanted to establish a Kansas focused model, addressing needs present in our largely rural state. Rural areas are in need of new revenue, but also have little access to health programs. As our bill is a non-for-profit model, all proceeds after base expenses are met will be donated back to patients, and to the local community, to be defined by local
patient-owned compassion center boards, based on the needs of their patients and community.
We seek to establish a guarantee of the highest standards of labeling, testing and standardization for patients, with tight quality control, lot control and seed to sale tracking, with full government transparency.
Based on current research and law from other established medically legal states, we also sought to minimize the potential environmental impact of the cannabis industry. We have written a 100% sustainable energy law and establish guidelines for medicine grown with organic-only methods.
We hope to stop the flight of Kansas medical refugees, who take their talent and taxes to other states, to bring new business, new jobs, and new revenue to Kansas.
Most importantly, we seek to to save Kansas lives, and end needless suffering.
Lisa Sublett is the president and founder of Bleeding Kansas Advocates, a non-profit group seeking to provide education, awareness and support for Kansas patients.