HB 166 — AN ACT relating to medical cannabis and making an appropriation therefor. Create new sections of KRS Chapter 218A to define terms; restrict medical cannabis to certain patients with qualifying debilitating conditions; establish requirements for cultivation, production, processing, distribution, and sale in compassion centers; establish requirements for patients, visiting patients, and caregivers; establish professional protections for practitioners; establish protections for cardholders; establish certain protections for cardholders; establish responsibilities for cardholders; allow restrictions on possession, possession while operating a motor vehicle, and smoking; clarify that use of medical cannabis by a qualifying patient is to be treated the same as use of prescribed pharmaceutical medications; establish additional protections for medical use; clarify that nothing in the bill requires government programs or private insurers to reimburse for the costs of use or prohibits an employer from disciplining an employee for workplace impairment; establish a medical purpose defense for some uses of medical cannabis; require establishment of a Cannabis Enforcement Program by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to enforce the department's duties; establish a process for the department to increase the list of debilitating medical conditions; require testing and quality regulation of the production, cultivation, processing, and sale of medical cannabis; establish requirements for licenses, facilities security, transportation, training, packaging, labeling, health and safety; establish rules on advertising, additives, pesticides, single-serving limits for THC content, and requiring random sample testing and safe processing; require licensure and issuance of cards for all medical cannabis businesses; establish certain licensure and application fees; require department to issue registry cards to patients submitting the required information; establish procedures for denying an application; establish technical requirements for cards and for cardholders; establish cardholder fees and notification requirements; require 60% of the boards of medical cannabis businesses to be composed of individuals with 3 years of continuous Kentucky residence: establish 3 tiers of medical cannabis business regulation by gross receipts; establish requirements for applying producers, cultivators, distributors, and processors; establish requirements for cultivator businesses, including addressing expansion of crops to meet market needs; establish protections and responsibilities for compassion centers, cultivators, and safety compliance facilities; establish procedures for the department to suspend or revoke registration and licensure; establish rules for local sales, including a requirement that a local legislative body take action to approve medical cannabis businesses; establish a process for local ordinances and ballot initiatives; establish requirements for medical cannabis business agents; prohibit location of a medical cannabis business within a certain distance from a school; establish a requirement that compassion centers obtain usable medical cannabis from only certain licensed entities; establish recordkeeping requirements; protect certain records and information from disclosure via the Kentucky Open Records Act; require establishment of a verification system for use by law enforcement personnel and medical cannabis business agents; establish a 19-member oversight committee to advise the department; require an annual report to be sent to the Legislative Research Commission; establish authority for the department to promulgate regulations; establish a method by which any citizen may commence an action with the Franklin Circuit Court to compel the department to perform its duties; establish an alternative method to create a valid registry identification card if the department fails to act; clarify that the department's duties are administrative in nature; establish excise taxes of 10% for a cultivator, processor, or producer for selling directly to a compassion center; establish excise taxes of 5% for a cultivator, processor, or producer for selling to a distributor; establish excise taxes of 5% for a distributor selling to a compassion center; direct that 80% of revenues go to the administration of the medical cannabis trust fund for the operation of the Cannabis Enforcement Program; direct that 20% of revenues go to the local medical cannabis trust fund for enforcement of medical cannabis laws, medical cannabis licensing, hiring of drug recognition experts, local evidence-based drug rehabilitation projects, or educational activities within local jails; establish the medical cannabis trust fund and the local cannabis trust fund; APPROPRIATION.

Last action March 20, 2018 — Discharge petition filed