photo by: Journal-World

In this file photo, Rep. Boog Highberger, D-Lawrence, speaks at the Kansas Statehouse in Topeka.

With almost 150 pages of detail and a unique structure that would give small businesses a chance to be significant players, Rep. Boog Highberger thought he might have crafted a bill that could make medical marijuana legal in Kansas.

House Republican leaders think differently.

Highberger, D-Lawrence, told the Journal-World this past week that he thinks it is unlikely that his medical marijuana bill will even get a hearing this year during the Kansas legislative session.

“They continue to be out of touch with their constituents,” Highberger said of Republican leadership that has blocked both medical marijuana and recreational marijuana bills from advancing in Kansas.

Highberger crafted the bill last year, and it failed to get a hearing during that session as well. He said that’s frustrating given that he thinks there are solid majorities in the state who approve of changes to marijuana’s legal status.

Highberger cited a recent poll conducted by Fort Hays State University showing that nearly 7 of 10 Kansans are in favor of legalizing recreational marijuana so that it could be taxed by the state, and that 63% of respondents were likely to vote for a candidate who supports the legalization of medical marijuana. While Highberger’s focus is medical marijuana, he said that he was “shocked to see so many people were in favor of legalizing recreational marijuana.”

“With almost 70% in favor, it cuts across both parties,” Highberger said.

Entering the 2024 legislative session, Kansas is one of only a handful of remaining states that does not have a program in place allowing for the use of either medical or recreational marijuana. As of April, Kansas, Nebraska and Idaho were the only states that had no public cannabis access program, according to a report from the National Conference of State Legislatures.

In addition to the economic advantages of his plan — it would produce tax and fee revenue for the state while creating a new category of legal businesses in the state — Highberger also touted the drug’s ability to provide relief from a variety of medical conditions. He questioned why those medical benefits aren’t resonating more with the Republican-controlled Legislature.

“I think it’s a moral issue for some of the people on the Christian right,” he said. “These decisions are driven by ideology, rather than practicality and information.”

Opposition from law enforcement officials has made it difficult for any legalization bill to pass in the Kansas Legislature, as the Associated Press reported last year when efforts stalled in the Senate. That Senate bill made it to a committee hearing but a vote on the bill was tabled. That bill would have prohibited smoking marijuana or vaping with it, but would have allowed other methods for delivering it for medical use to treat 21 different illnesses or conditions, according to the AP.

The Kansas House did approve a medical marijuana bill in 2021, but the Senate never took a vote on the matter. In 2021, the AP reported that opposition in the Senate ranged from concerns that a medical marijuana bill would open the door to making recreational marijuana legal to legislators who said it was a bad message for a state to make marijuana legal when it is still illegal under federal law.

Highberger said that the bill he crafted “was more patient-friendly and small-business friendly” than any previous plan calling for legalization. The proposal, Highberger said, was structured in a way that would not discourage small-business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs from setting up shop.

“The earlier bills were structured for just a few corporate players,” Highberger said. “And I know there are conservative Republicans that I serve with that would like to have a vote on it, but their whole leadership is preventing it.”

State Sen. Marci Francisco, D-Lawrence, told the Journal-World that the issue of medical marijuana is a prime example of something that’s “supported by a majority of Kansans that often does not even get a hearing in the Legislature.” Because marijuana remains illegal at the federal level, both Highberger and Francisco said that the sheer complexity of legalizing marijuana — the licensing protocols required for producers and distributors, for example — seems to be another deterrent.

“Clearly, it’s an issue with a lot of details,” Francisco said. “But if we know the public wants it, it’s our job to work through those details.”

Francisco said helping people understand how the system would work in Kansas is also important.

Francisco said she thinks medical marijuana is not something that would flood the streets and be easily accessible to anyone, but that it would only be available through “consultation with your doctor or other health professionals.”

Francisco said that one of her constituents relocated to Colorado, a state where recreational use has been legal since 2012 and medical use since 2000, in order to help treat her daughter’s epilepsy and that the medical marijuana there helped to reduce the daughter’s seizures.

“If it makes a difference for children, how can we say that’s not appropriate?” Francisco said.

Democrats, like Highberger and Francisco, are in the minority in both the House and the Senate, which makes moving legislation difficult. But it also is worth noting that Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly did not raise the issue at all in her State of the State address this past week. That is another sign legalization may not have much momentum this session. Despite it all, Highberger remains hopeful that a medical marijuana bill will eventually break through the Republican blockade.

“I’ve heard that the Senate may take action on a very simplified bill this year,” he said.