<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/2/1614364202941.png" alt="A Colorado cannabis dispensary, the kind some people want to open in Kansas for medical marijuana. Scott Canon / Kansas News Service" />
 <figcaption>A Colorado cannabis dispensary, the kind some people want to open in Kansas for medical marijuana. Scott Canon / Kansas News Service</figcaption>
 </figure>By STEPHEN KORANDA <a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2021-02-26/medical-marijuana-for-kansas-proposed-with-tight-rules-in-hopes-of-winning-legalization">Kansas News Service</a>TOPEKA, Kansas — Kiley Klug, flanked by her 13-year-old son, 
Owen, in a wheelchair, stood before Kansas lawmakers Wednesday and 
pleaded to let her treat her son’s hundreds of daily seizures with legal
 medicinal marijuana.At one point, she paused to tend to one of the boy’s seizures before resuming her testimony.“He,
 as you can see, suffers from a rare, relentless seizure monster called 
Dravet Syndrome,” she said. “He, at his worst, has struggled through up 
to 200 to 300 seizures a day.”Klug was speaking in favor of <a href="http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2021_22/measures/hb2184/" target="_blank">a bill</a>
 that’s a new effort this year to legalize medicinal marijuana. She said
 her son has shown significant improvement using products containing 
limited THC, which falls in a<a href="https://www.kcur.org/health/2019-07-11/a-doctors-note-might-get-you-off-the-hook-for-possessing-cbd-with-thc-in-kansas" target="_blank"> gray area under Kansas law,</a> and they want the option to try other cannabis treatments.“We
 need the flexibility to explore different strains and ratios,” Klug 
said, “in order to find the combination that’s most effective to combat 
these seizures.”Kansas lawmakers are taking another run at 
medical marijuana legislation this session, but it could face long odds 
after other plans have stalled in recent years.The state has taken only <a href="https://www.kcur.org/health/2019-07-11/a-doctors-note-might-get-you-off-the-hook-for-possessing-cbd-with-thc-in-kansas" target="_blank">the smallest steps</a>
 to allow medical use of products made from cannabis, and the new bill 
includes significant restrictions aimed at making it palatable to 
lawmakers less interested in loosening marijuana laws.Kansas remains one of only a few states without some kind of law legalizing the medical use of cannabis products. Around <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/research/health/state-medical-marijuana-laws.aspx" target="_blank">three dozen states</a> have comprehensive medical marijuana laws.Even with those restrictions, the legislation still faces opposition from law enforcement groups.Republican
 Rep. Eric Smith, a sheriff’s deputy, said medicinal use would increase 
the number of people driving under the influence of marijuana. He said 
someone ignoring those kinds of impacts is sticking their “head in the 
sand.”Graham County Sheriff Cole Presley, representing the Kansas
 Sheriffs’ Association, said the plan could put Kansas on a path to 
full-on recreational use of cannabis.“Almost every state that 
we’ve seen go down this path, this is just one step closer to legalizing
 recreational marijuana,” Presley said.Law enforcement opposing 
the bill also said that because marijuana remains illegal under federal 
law, legalizing it at the state level creates a conflict. Law 
enforcement officials said they’ll need an accessible database so they 
can verify medical marijuana ID cards are valid.Yet the legalization for medical use is drawing some bipartisan support.Willie
 Dove is a conservative Republican and former Kansas lawmaker who urged 
the House Federal and State Affairs committee to approve the bill. He 
said he’s heard from people who wanted to treat conditions such as 
seizures and chronic pain.“We’re not talking about hippies from 
the sixties,” Dove told the committee. “We’re talking about individuals,
 law-abiding citizens, that really want to make something happen for 
their families.”The new Republican president of the Senate is 
also open to the idea, as long as it has restrictions so it can’t be 
exploited to allow recreational use under the guise of medical 
marijuana.“You don’t really believe we have that many 
18-year-olds with glaucoma that need to smoke weed for a medical 
benefit,” Senator Ty Masterson said in an interview. “Clearly, that’s 
recreational.”To attract people like Masterson, the House plan 
includes various restrictions and state oversight. For instance, only 
specially certified physicians could prescribe the drug, and only for <a href="http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2021_22/measures/documents/hb2184_00_0000.pdf" target="_blank">a specific list</a>
 of 21 conditions ranging from cancer to severe chronic pain and brain 
injuries. There are provisions for the state to add more conditions to 
the list.A patient also couldn’t find a doctor and quickly get a 
recommendation to use marijuana. The bill says doctors can only 
recommend cannabis to patients they’ve been seeing for at least a year.Marijuana could not be smoked under the plan. Instead, it could be sold in other forms like edible products and oils.State
 agencies and an oversight panel would regulate the certificates for 
doctors and the system for growing and distributing marijuana. The bill 
would allow patients to only have up to a 90-day supply.Registered
 Nurse April Hatch said marijuana is a safer alternative for pain 
treatment. She told lawmakers about her grandmother’s painful withdrawal
 after using opiods.“A 90-year-old woman was forced into 
withdrawal that resulted in the worst days of her life,” Hatch said. 
“Cannabis does have the potential to prevent patients from suffering 
like she did.”Eric Voth, an internal medicine doctor representing
 the Kansas Medical Society, said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration 
hasn’t fully weighed in on the safety of using medical marijuana and it 
needs more study. The agency <a href="https://www.fda.gov/news-events/public-health-focus/fda-and-cannabis-research-and-drug-approval-process#research" target="_blank">has approved some limited related products</a>.Voth
 told lawmakers to trim back the limited list of conditions eligible for
 treatment with marijuana and ignore the fact that Kansas is one of only
 a small number of states that don’t allow some form of medicinal use.“It
 should not be allowed as a medicine,” Voth said. “You should continue 
to hold the line. Unlike many other states, we need to be proud of 
holding the line.”The House plan is one of several ideas in the Statehouse regarding marijuana policy. <a href="https://twitter.com/BrettParker4KS/status/1362057123064991752" target="_blank">Some Democrats</a> have introduced a bill to allow the recreational use of marijuana. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly has proposed <a href="https://apnews.com/article/legislature-medical-marijuana-kansas-marijuana-medicaid-a11663e4684db69315b71f1db5353013" target="_blank">a separate plan</a> to allow medical marijuana and use the revenue from it to pay for Medicaid expansion.Kelly
 says she would support a bill allowing medical cannabis because it’s a 
treatment option already available to many Americans.“I want 
Kansans to be able to get the treatment they need here in their home 
state, and not have to go someplace else,” Kelly said after the House 
hearing.Stephen Koranda is the Statehouse reporter for Kansas Public Radio and the Kansas News Service. You can follow him on Twitter<a href="https://twitter.com/kprkoranda" target="_blank"> @kprkoranda</a>.

Medical marijuana for Kan. proposed with tight rules in hopes of winning legalization