Kansas panel hears proposed changes to marijuana laws

Several Kansas families came to the Capitol on Wednesday to ask lawmakers for the chance to help their kids suffering from seizure disorders.

Allowing for the limited production and sale of hemp oil for seizure treatment is one part of a bill that also would reduce penalties for first and second marijuana possession convictions.

Kiley and Gavin Klug came with their 8-year-old son, Owen, who was in a wheelchair, to ask members of the Senate Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee to consider the hemp oil provision of the bill. The Klugs live in central Kansas.

Kiley Klug said Owen’s seizures began when he was 6 months old, sometimes 200 seizures a day. As a toddler, their son could hold a cup and use a baby walker, but not anymore. Prescription medication has both helped and hurt, she said.

“Epilepsy is simply a prison Owen cannot escape,” she said. “It’s time to move on to more nontraditional therapies,” she said.

Scott Schultz with the Kansas Sentencing Commission told the committee the bill’s provision to reduce penalties for first and second marijuana possession convictions would remove about 450 felony cases from the court system.

In the proposal, a first offense would be classified as a lower-level misdemeanor and a second offense would be reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor.

The change would save 57 prison beds in fiscal year 2017 and more than 100 beds by 2026, Schultz said.

The House approved the bill last year, but it stalled in the Senate late in the session.

Sen. Greg Smith, an Overland Park Republican and committee chairman, said after the hearing that the hemp oil portion of the bill and another section on hemp research would be better heard in committees that deal with health and agriculture.

Splitting the bill would still leave the proposed penalty reductions for his committee to consider. Smith said he is interested in hearing more about the trend to “de-felonize” some simple marijuana possessions.

“I think we can look at that while keeping public safety in mind,” he said.

This story was originally published January 20, 2016 at 12:16 PM with the headline "Kansas panel hears proposed changes to marijuana laws."