2020 Complete List of Cannabis/Hemp Bills Kentucky

KY SB105 | 2020 | Regular Session

Create various new sections of KRS Chapter 245 to define terms; to allow for possession, growth, use, processing, purchasing, transfer, and consumption of cannabis; to establish limits for transfer; to allow for purchasing and manufacture of cannabis accessories; to authorize activities and operation of retail stores, consumption establishments, cultivation facilities, cannabis testing facilities, and product manufacturing facilities; to establish possession limits; to prohibit smoking cannabis in public and to establish a fine for violation; to prohibit operation of motor vehicles while consuming cannabis and to specify that existing intoxication laws are not superseded; to prohibit state or local resources to be used to investigate violations of federal Controlled Substances Act that conflict with this KRS Chapter 245; to specify that an employer is not required to allow consumption, workplace intoxication, possession, or transfer of cannabis; to prohibit individuals under the age of 21 from entering cannabis establishments, purchasing, using, or misrepresenting their age and to provide for exceptions; to establish provisions for palliative or therapeutic use of cannabis by persons under the age of 21; to establish a penalty for underage possession of cannabis; to establish a penalty for underage cultivation of cannabis; to establish provisions for personal cultivation; to establish and direct the Department of Cannabis Control to administer KRS Chapter 245 and promulgate administrative regulations relating to all aspects of cannabis establishments, cannabis manufacturing, and transfer, cultivation, packaging, and health and safety requirements; to establish restrictions on advertising, and restrictions on additives, pesticides, visitor logs, and sample testing; to require promulgation of administrative regulations within 180 days; to establish timeframes for the issuance of licenses; to establish licensure requirements and separate licenses; to establish cannabis business license tiers; to establish a license and renewal fee and license application form; to establish a trust and agency account; to establish a cannabis regulation fund and mandate the direction of certain funds; to establish a civil penalty for violating KRS Chapter 245, including for failing to keep written records and submitting required reports; to require prioritization for Kentucky residents in the licensing of cannabis businesses; to establish the legislative intent that cannabis or cannabis products not in conformity with KRS Chapter 245 are seizable as contraband; to allow for local governments to prohibit the operation of cannabis businesses; to create a new section of KRS Chapter 138 to establish excise taxes; to establish the social equity loan trust and Social Equity Loan Program; to create a new section of KRS Chapter 139 to direct the placement of excise taxes and sales taxes relating to cannabis; to create a new section of KRS Chapter 431 to provide for the expungement of minor cannabis offenses; amend KRS 431.079 to conform; amend KRS 2.015 to make the cultivation, purchase, use, and possession of cannabis a higher age of majority activity; amend KRS 610.010 to make cannabis offenses under KRS Chapter 245 committed by minors under the authority of the juvenile session of the District Court; amend KRS 630.020 to grant a court jurisdiction over cannabis offenses committed by children; amend KRS 630.120 to prohibit commitment of children over a cannabis offense; amend KRS 218A.1421, 218A.1422, 218A.1423 to conform; amend KRS 218A.500 to exclude cannabis accessories from the definition of drug paraphernalia; amend KRS 12.020 and 12.252 to reflect the establishment of the Department of Cannabis Control; to establish a short title; EFFECTIVE January 1, 2021; APPROPRIATION.

KY HB136 | 2020 | Regular Session

Create various new sections of KRS Chapter 218A to define terms; to exempt the medicinal marijuana program from existing provisions in Kentucky law to the contrary; to require the Department for Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Control to implement and regulate the medicinal marijuana program in Kentucky; to establish the Division of Medicinal Marijuana within the Department of Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Control; to establish restrictions on the possession of medicinal marijuana by qualifying patients, visiting patients, and designated caregivers; to establish certain protections for cardholders; to establish professional protections for practitioners; to provide for the authorizing of practitioners by state licensing boards to issue written certifications for the use medicinal marijuana; to establish professional protections for attorneys; to prohibit the possession and use of medicinal marijuana on a school bus, on the grounds of any preschool or primary or secondary school, in a correctional facility, any property of the federal government, or while operating a motor vehicle; to prohibit smoking of medicinal marijuana; to permit an employer to restrict the possession and use of medicinal marijuana by an employee; to require the department to implement and operate a registry identification card program; to establish requirements for registry identification cards; to establish registry identification card fees; to require the department to operate a provisional licensure receipt system; to establish the application requirements for a registry identification card; to establish when the department may deny an application for a registry identification card; to establish certain responsibilities for cardholders; to establish when a registry identification card may be revoked; to establish various cannabis business licensure categories; to establish tiering of cannabis business licenses; to require certain information be included in an application for a cannabis business license; to establish when the department may deny an application for a cannabis business license; to prohibit a practitioner from being a board member or principal officer of a cannabis business; to prohibit cross-ownership of certain classes of cannabis businesses; to establish rules for local sales, including establishing the process by which a local legislative body may prohibit the operation of cannabis businesses within its territory and the process for local ordinances and ballot initiatives; to establish technical requirements for cannabis businesses; to establish limits on the THC content of medicinal marijuana that can be produced or sold in the state; to establish requirements for cannabis cultivators, including cultivation square footage limits; to establish requirements for cannabis dispensaries; to establish requirements for safety compliance facilities; to establish requirements for cannabis processors; to establish procedures for the department to inspect cannabis businesses; to establish procedures for the suspension or revocation of a cannabis business license; to exempt certain records and information from the disclosure under the Kentucky Open Records Act; to require the department to develop, maintain, and operate electronic systems for monitoring the medicinal marijuana program; to require the department to promulgate administrative regulations necessary to implement the medicinal marijuana program; to establish that nothing in the bill requires government programs or private insurers to reimburse for the cost of use; to establish the medicinal marijuana trust fund; to establish the local medicinal marijuana trust fund; and to establish procedures for the distribution of local cannabis trust fund moneys; create a new section of KRS Chapter 138 to establish an excise tax of 12% for cultivators and processors for selling to dispensaries; to require that 80% of the revenue from the excise taxes be deposited into the medicinal marijuana trust fund; to require that 20% of the revenue from the excise taxes be deposited into the local medicinal marijuana trust fund; amend KRS 342.815 to establish that the Employer’s Mutual Insurance Authority shall not be required to provide coverage to an employer if doing so would subject the authority to a violation of state or federal law; amend KRS 139.470 to exempt the sale of medical marijuana from the state sales tax; amend KRS 218A.010, 218A.1421, 218A.1422, 218A.1423, and 218A.500 to conform; amend KRS 12.020 to change the name of the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Control and to create the Division of Medicinal Marijuana; and amend KRS 12.252, 15.300, 15.380, 15.398, 15A.340, 15.420, 61.592, 62.160, 131.1815, 211.285, 241.010, 241.015, 241.030, 243.025, 243.0307, 243.038, 243.090, 243.360, 438.310, 438.311, 438.313, 438.315, 438.317, 438,320, 438.325, 438.330, 438.337, and 438.340 to conform; EFFECTIVE January 1, 2021; APPROPRIATION.

KY HB148 | 2020 | Regular Session

Establish KRS Chapter 245 and create a section to define terms such as “cannabis accessory”, “cannabis product”, “immature cannabis plant”, “indoor cultivator”, “mature cannabis plant”, and “outdoor cultivator”; create new sections of KRS Chapter 245 to require cannabis to be tracked from seed to consumer; establish license types, application fees, and license fees, and to direct license fees to the permanent pension fund; define sizes for cultivator license types; specify allowed transactions for each license type; set parameters for the home grower permit; require the board to promulgate an administrative regulation for license applications; set license length at one year and allow the board to establish renewal system; limit cannabis retail locations to one for every two thousand three hundred persons per county; require cannabis retail stores to be separate from other store and only carry cannabis, cannabis products, and cannabis accessories; create requirements for child-proof packaging and labeling; establish procedures for license denial and a hearing in accordance with KRS Chapter 13B; establish payments in lieu of suspension for licensees and direct the funds to the permanent pension fund and the agency’s revolving trust and agency account; establish minimum age of twenty-one to use or buy cannabis and create status offense for minors under eighteen; ban smoking cannabis in public; and require signs in retail locations regarding minors and the US Surgeon General’s statement on cannabis; create new sections of KRS Chapter 138 to define “cannabis”, “cannabis administrator”, and “cannabis product”; set wholesale tax rates and payment schedules for cannabis cultivator and processor licensees, allow local governments to impose up to a 5% regulatory license fee on cannabis licensees in their territory; establish conditions for tax liability; impose civil penalties for tax violations; create a new section of KRS Chapter 245 to set conditions for the cannabis tax rates effective July 1, 2026 and beyond; amend KRS 2.015 to exempt cannabis from age of majority; amend KRS 42.205 to include licensing and permit fees, payments in lieu of suspension, and moneys from wholesale taxes to go to the permanent pension fund and to be distributed quarterly to KERS nonhazardous and TRS funds; amend KRS 241.020 to include a Division of Cannabis in the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control; amend KRS 241.030 to add administrator of the Division of Cannabis; amend KRS 241.060 to add supervision of the cultivation, processing, testing, and trafficking of cannabis to the board’s duties; amend KRS 241.090 to add cannabis to search provisions; amend KRS 243.025 to direct application fees for cannabis licenses into the agency revolving trust account; amend KRS 218A.1421 to exempt cannabis licenses from trafficking statute; amend KRS 218A.1422 to exempt one ounce of marijuana from possession statute; amend KRS 218A.1423 to permit cannabis cultivator licensees and home grower permits to cultivate under their license or permit; amend KRS 218A.500 to exclude cannabis accessories from drug paraphernalia; create a new section of KRS Chapter 431 to create process for expungement of marijuana misdemeanor charges and to waive fees; amend KRS 431.079 to exclude need for certification of eligibility for expungement; amend KRS 131.1815 to include cannabis licensees in delinquent taxpayer statute; amend KRS 600.020 to include cannabis offenses in the definition of status offense; amend KRS 12.020 to create Division of Cannabis within the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

KY HB221 | 2020 | Regular Session

Create a new section of KRS Chapter 218A to make the penalty for possession of a personal use quantity of marijuana a prepayable non-criminal fine; amend KRS 218A.010 to define “personal use quantity of marijuana” and “marijuana accessory”; amend KRS 218A.1422 regarding marijuana possession to conform; amend KRS 218A.500 regarding drug paraphernalia to exempt personal use marijuana accessories; amend KRS 431.450 to include violations for possession of personal use quantities of marijuana in the uniform citation form; amend KRS 500.080 to exclude the offense of possession of a personal use quantity of marijuana from the definition of “violation”; and amend KRS 138.872 to exclude personal use quantities from marijuana stamp tax; create a new section of KRS Chapter 431 to allow expungement of convictions for possession of a personal use quantity of marijuana or marijuana accessories.

KY SB65 | 2020 | Regular Session

Amend KRS 344.010 to define “hemp” and “hemp-derived products”; amend KRS 344.040 to provide protections against employment-related discrimination for users of hemp-derived products.

KY SB96 | 2020 | Regular Session

Create a new section of KRS Chapter 336 to provide definitions and to require public employers to have an appeals process for an employee who violates a drug-free policy using legal industrial products; amend KRS 18A.043 to require an appeals process for those public employers who require drug testing; amend KRS 304.13-167 to require Section 2 be complied with by public employers and suggested for private employers.

KY HB236 | 2020 | Regular Session

Amend KRS 250.355 to allow the Department of Agriculture to establish hemp testing procedures; create a new section of KRS 260.850 to 260.869 to set forth requirements for the transportation of hemp or hemp products; amend KRS 260.850 and 260.852, 260.860, 260.864, and 260.866 to make technical corrections; amend KRS 260.858 to specify unlawful conduct; amend KRS 260.862 to specify licensure requirements; repeal KRS 260.867; EMERGENCY.

KY HCR5 | 2020 | Regular Session

Urge federal policymakers to expedite research regarding the safety and efficacy of the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

KY HCR57 | 2020 | Regular Session

Urge Congress to reassess the federal definition of hemp, allowing the product to contain up to one percent (1%) delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).