When it comes to marijuana, Kansas is a red state in an increasingly green country.
Three of its neighbors Colorado, Oklahoma and Missouri have legalized some form of the drug in recent years. Yet Kansas remains one of four states in the country without a comprehensive medical or recreational marijuana program.
Thats not for lack of trying. This spring, the Legislature passed a bill allowing patients and caregivers to possess CBD one chemical in marijuana containing small amounts of THC, a psychoactive component of the plant. The Kansas Health Institute reports that lawmakers have introduced 18 medical marijuana bills since 2006. This year, one got a hearing at the Capitol.
But law enforcement officers representing several of the states agencies and professional organizations testified against it. The bill never made it to a vote.
I only ask that you give deference to the experience, to the opinions of the law enforcement community, said Kirk Thompson, director of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, the top law enforcement agency in the state. Weve seen the negative side of this issue.
The agency denied requests for an interview with Thompson and didnt answer emailed questions about its marijuana enforcement strategy. But Thompsons statement echoes the position of many of the states law enforcement agencies and organizations.
They argue that even legalization of medical marijuana would increase car accidents and violent crime and make it easier for foreign drug cartels to move weed onto the black market.
Law enforcement officers say weed is inherently tied to violence, especially from Mexican cartels. And they report an increase in marijuana-related traffic stops in Kansas, especially since Colorado legalized recreational sales of the drug in 2014.
In every way, marijuana is driving up public health and public safety concerns, said Jeffrey Stamm, executive director of the Kansas City-based Midwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, under the Office of National Drug Control Policy. In terms of the psychopharmacology, the economic, the criminal, the social costs of marijuana use, cops, in fact, are the experts.
But ultimately, its hard to know what impact marijuana has on public safety in Kansas because the state doesnt collect much of that information.
Anecdotes and Statistics
The federal Drug Enforcement Administration publishes data on its Cannabis Eradication Program, including arrests, number of plants seized and the value of assets seized in each state.
But the Kansas Bureau of Investigation doesnt do the same.
KBI says in 2018, more than 45% of its crime labs blood drug tests came back positive for THC. In 2013, only 29% of those blood tests indicated the presence of THC. But the agency doesnt track the total number of marijuana seizures in the state, nor does it track the total number of marijuana arrests.
