Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear Under Pressure To Decriminalize Marijuana, Advocates Want Executive Action

Cannabis advocates met recently at the Kentucky state Capitol Rotunda where they gathered signatures for a petition asking Governor Andy Beshear (D) to take executive action to decriminalize cannabis.

"I'm pleading with Gov. Beshear to please follow through with [President Joe] Biden's request to decriminalize cannabis…it's way past time for this to happen, and I will gladly sign this petition,” said Patrick Dunegan, director of the Kentucky Cannabis Freedom Coalition.

After all, in November 2022, Gov. Beshear issued an executive order providing access to medical marijuana for Kentuckians suffering from at least one of 21 medical conditions. Now they want the governor to step up and do the same and decriminalize cannabis.

"It's time to protect Kentucky citizens from the cruel and outdated laws that have restricted our economy and damaged the lives of our citizens for 87 years," said Coalition member Regina Carpenter, adding that it's time to stop “criminalizing a plant.”

Carpenter said far too many Kentuckians are being unfairly prosecuted for possessing marijuana, while nearby states have successfully legalized cannabis. She pointed to states bordering Kentucky like Illinois and Ohio that have full legalization and West Virginia that permits medical marijuana.

"It loads up our jails with ‘criminals’ who are in there for the possession of a plant. In my eyes, that’s not a criminal; it’s a person. And with that, it’s overcrowding our jails," she said.

Though Gov. Beshear recently added 13 more illnesses to the list of qualifying conditions for medical marijuana thereby making it accessible to an additional half-million people, advocates want the governor to use a recently proposed House Bill 72 as a framework to essentially legalize small amounts of marijuana for personal use.

Kentucky’s MMJ Law: Advocates complain that Kentucky’s recently passed medical marijuana law is one of the strictest of its kind in the U.S. Known as Senate Bill 47, it was approved in March 2023, making Kentucky the 38^th state to legalize medical marijuana once Beshear signed it into law. That bill goes into effect Jan. 1, 2025.

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Photo: Courtesy of Paul Einerhand on Unsplash and Wikimedia Commons