Kansas Lawmakers Block Medical Marijuana, Medicaid Expansion Despite Popular Support

Kansas lawmakers have blocked efforts to legalize medical marijuana and expand Medicaid coverage in the state for at least another year. Republican senators prevented debates on both issues before Tuesday’s scheduled adjournment of the legislative session, with supporters falling short of the necessary 24 votes required to pull bills out of committee. Both proposals have failed repeatedly over the past decade despite popular support as Kansas does not allow voters to put proposed laws forward through a ballot initiative process. Of all US states except Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin and Wyoming, none but 10 have expanded Medicaid in line with Obamacare’s requirements; while just seven out of fifty do not permit medical marijuana use (including Kansas). Law enforcement officials oppose the latter measure because they view it as potentially paving the way for legal recreational cannabis. In Oklahoma, where voters approved a ballot initiative to allow medicinal pot in 2018, Attorney General Gentner Drummond has expressed concerns that its liberal law is attracting an influx of criminals and foreign nationals involved in black-market operations due to the high number (over ten thousand) of growers. Democratic Governor Laura Kelly had previously linked medical marijuana with Medicaid expansion proposals but failed to push them through last year, although she has now said that election years are irrelevant when it comes to this issue following intense advocacy campaigning and accusations that legislators’ decisions might lead people living in poverty into ill health or cause rural hospitals to close. The Republican Senate President dismissed such polls as “just based on how the question is asked” and argued that they would not support proposals for ‘able-bodied people [to] get free healthcare’.