A Kentucky lawmaker this week filed a brand new invoice to legalize leisure marijuana. The measure, aptly titled Area Invoice 420, was once presented at the ground of the Kentucky Area of Representatives on Tuesday by way of state Democratic Rep. Rachel Roberts to the applause of her colleagues, consistent with a document from the Louisville Courier Magazine. Fellow Democrats Rep. Lisa Willner and Rep. Keturah Herron have signed on as co-sponsors of the invoice.
If handed by way of the Kentucky legislature and signed into legislation by way of Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, HB 420 would legalize the ownership and use of leisure hashish by way of adults elderly 21 and older. The measure would additionally keep watch over and tax business hashish actions together with the cultivation, processing, advertising and marketing and sale of leisure marijuana.
Invoice Regulates And Taxes Grownup-Use Hashish
The invoice would additionally identify a brand new hashish regulatory board as a part of the state Public Coverage Cupboard to supervise the licensing of hashish companies and enforcement of the leisure marijuana program. The measure would pass into impact subsequent 12 months, with approved gross sales of leisure marijuana slated to start out on July 1, 2026. The Kentucky state legislature legalized clinical marijuana for sufferers with specified clinical prerequisites final 12 months with a invoice that is going into impact on July 1, 2025.
Kentucky Area Invoice 420 would legalize leisure marijuana for adults.
A tax of 9% could be levied on leisure marijuana purchases at each the wholesale and retail stage. Moreover, native governments could be allowed to asses a “licensing charge” of as much as 5% “for the privilege of running throughout the limits of the native executive,” consistent with the textual content of the measure as cited by way of hashish information website online Marijuana Second.
The state Treasury could be tasked with making a “hashish fund” for charges, taxes and fines gathered beneath HB 420. Hashish earnings could be used to fund the executive prices of the leisure marijuana program.
No less than 30% of the rest earnings could be directed to a brand new Social Affect Council that might deal with “the have an effect on of financial divestment, violence and historic overuse of legal justice responses to group and person wishes” via scholarships and early life instructional systems. Tax earnings would even be used to fund re-entry systems and process coaching for folks from communities that have been “traditionally focused by way of drug legislation enforcement” over a long time of hashish prohibition.
Along with legalizing leisure marijuana in Kentucky, HB 420 permits for the expungement of earlier convictions for misdemeanor marijuana ownership or distribution offenses.
Separate Weed Legalization Invoice Pending
Final month, Democratic Rep. Nima Kulkarni presented a extra restricted leisure marijuana legalization measure, HB 72. If handed, the invoice would legalize the ownership and use of hashish by way of adults. The invoice additionally permits for the house cultivation of as much as 5 hashish vegetation, however the proposal would no longer authorize the industrial manufacturing and sale of leisure marijuana.
Along with legalizing the ownership, use and cultivation of small quantities of marijuana, Kulkarni’s new invoice would additionally legalize the ownership of as much as 5 grams of cannabinoids derived from hemp or marijuana and merchandise containing as much as 1,000 milligrams of delta-8 THC or delta-9 THC.
The invoice additionally permits for the expungement of convictions for prior marijuana offenses which are legalized by way of the measure. Courts could be required to vacate convictions and expunge data inside of 200 days of the invoice’s efficient date except objections are filed by way of prosecutors.
Each HB 420 and HB 72 were referred to the Area Committee on Committees for attention, even though passage by way of the Republican-led Kentucky legislature turns out not likely.
