A new report indicates that more than 100 Kentucky cities and counties will conduct ballot referendums related to medical marijuana.
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Gene Cole, executive director and president of the Kentucky Ethics League, hopes those communities will decide not to participate in the medical cannabis program.
Medical marijuana becomes legal in Kentucky beginning Jan. 1, but local municipalities can decide whether to opt in to allowing medical marijuana businesses or opt out. They can also take no action and be automatically included in the medical cannabis program.
Cole said he is concerned the communities that allow marijuana-related businesses will see an increase in crime. “In the cities and states that have enacted medical marijuana programs, the promises have yet to be realized, property crime has gone up, dispensaries robbed — not for their money — but for the marijuana.”
According to several news reports, the Daviess County Sheriff is preparing for a possible increase in DUIs after medical marijuana becomes legal.
“Speaking with our law enforcement partners from states that already have relaxed marijuana laws, whether it is medicinal or recreational, we know that DUIs are one of the things we will most likely see an increase in,” Daviess Co. Sheriff Brand Youngman told the Owensboro Times.
Youngman has begun training his officers on more sophisticated evidence collection in order to successful prosecute DUIs.
He said his office now has a trained phlebotomist on the force so that blood can be drawn more efficiently for drug testing. “The only test that would matter in a marijuana, or any kind of drug DUI, would be the blood test,” he said.
According to the Kentucky Traffic Collision report, 744 people were killed in a fatal crash in 2022. Of those deaths, 265 were under the influence of drugs, with almost half having marijuana in their systems.
Americans Against Legalized Marijuana (AALM) Vice President Scott Chipman said, “The reasons people may still think alcohol and tobacco are more dangerous than pot is because for decades they have been educated on the dangers of alcohol and tobacco. People have not received the same education on marijuana. If they had, they would know marijuana is as or more dangerous than tobacco or alcohol.”
AALM pointed out that National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy warned that many states are “far ahead on legalizing it, but very behind when it comes to traffic safety.” A study released in 2023 found that marijuana-related traffic accidents that required treatment in an emergency room rose 475 percent between 2010 and 2021.
While some counties and cities can prevent medical cannabis businesses from operating, they cannot prohibit anyone with a valid medical marijuana card from possessing it.
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