by Megan Hart, KHI News Service
A bill that would legalize hemp oil for treating seizures advanced Thursday to the full Kansas Senate, but not before a committee made extensive changes.
The Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee amended Senate Bill 489 to forbid in-state hemp oil production, create different standards for adult and child patients, require doctors who want to prescribe hemp oil to pay for a different certification and specify that the state’s Health Care Stabilization Fund wouldn’t be liable if patients are injured while taking hemp oil.
The amended bill would require that hemp oil prescribed to people younger than 21 contain no more than 0.3 percent tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, which is the chemical that produces a sense of euphoria or “high” in recreational marijuana users.
Sen. Jim Denning, an Overland Park Republican, introduced the amendment to lower the limit for minors while allowing THC content of up to 3 percent for adults.
A second amendment, from Sen. Jacob LaTurner, a Pittsburg Republican, would stipulate that the hemp oil must contain at least 15 percent cannabidiol, or CBD, a chemical in marijuana that doesn’t cause a high.
Advocates see health benefits
Medical marijuana advocates converged Wednesday on the Statehouse to plead their case, but the committee delayed working the bill due to limited time.
Sara Weber was among those who said allowing hemp oil could make a significant difference in her life.
Weber, 27, of Washington, said she has had multiple types of seizures since she has was 18, and taking variety of medications hasn’t substantially reduced them.
A doctor she visited in Colorado said she would benefit from taking a high-cannabidiol hemp oil as a maintenance medication and a hemp oil with a higher tetrahydrocannabinol content for times of heightened seizure activity, but she and her two children can’t easily pick up and move from their family’s support system.
Weber said she takes four medications but still has 20 to 50 seizures per month, and hopes hemp oil could change that. The seizures have kept her from driving, working in her parents’ restaurant or even taking care of daily activities without someone present to make sure she isn’t injured, she said.
“Maybe I would be able to take my daughters to the park,” she said. “Maybe I’d be able to cook dinner without someone in the kitchen. Maybe I’d be able to go back to work.”
No in-state production
During Thursday’s committee hearing, LaTurner also offered an amendment striking language that would allow facilities to produce hemp oil in Kansas. States such as Oklahoma also have taken the route of importing from states with looser restrictions, and forbidding production in Kansas would address law enforcement’s concerns about explosions in facilities creating the oil, he said.
“This is in line with what Kentucky, Iowa and others have done,” he said.
The Colorado explosions mostly have happened in homes where amateur cooks attempted to make hash oil. Hash oil differs from hemp oil in that it is created to maximize THC content for recreational users.
Rep. John Wilson, a Lawrence Democrat who testified before the committee, said the amendment banning in-state production could make the bill unworkable because hemp oil remains illegal under federal law.
“You are asking them to break federal law by bringing a controlled substance across a state border,” he said.
Federal authorities have opted not to aggressively enforce drug laws against medical marijuana users, but a future president could change that informal policy.
Denning also offered amendments that would:
• allow patients a 30-day supply instead of a 60-day supply.
• require providers to pay $2,000 for an annual certification if they want to prescribe hemp oil and have an office in a state-licensed medical facility.
• hold the state’s Health Care Stabilization Fund harmless if patients are harmed after hemp oil, meaning any compensation would have to come from the doctor’s malpractice insurance.
Denning said a higher license fee is necessary to pay to set up the framework to regulate hemp oil.
But Sen. David Haley, a Kansas City, Kan., Democrat, said he thought it was “discriminatory” to charge doctors who want to prescribe hemp oil more than the state charges those looking to reinstate their licenses after losing them.
“We’re just getting started. We have no pay-fors,” Denning said.
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