Politics
Incoming Kansas Governor Wants To Legalize Marijuana, Saying Trump’s Federal Move Eases The Parth For State Action
Kansas’s newly elected incoming Democratic governor has made it clear she wants to legalize marijuana, arguing that the Trump administration’s move to reschedule cannabis at the federal level will make it easier to enact reform in the state.
After more than a week of uncertainty about the result of the Kansas gubernatorial election as votes were counted in the close race, The Associated Press concluded on Thursday that state Sen. Cindy Holscher (D) had prevailed over Senate President Ty Masterson (R), who then conceded.
Last month, Holscher cited public support for marijuana reform in Kansas, saying that “I believe close to 70 percent of the population is in favor of legalization.”
“But you get a few people once in a while who will say, ‘Well, we don’t want to bring that here,’” she said. “My response: It’s already here. If you drive along state line in Johnson County, you drive along the border on the southern edge to Oklahoma, and you see the dispensaries—there’s Kansas plates there. So it’s already here.”
“But what’s happening is we aren’t getting the revenue for it, and we aren’t getting our guardrails in place. We need to do that,” Holscher said. “The revenue that’s projected to come in could help us do things like better funding public education in terms of special ed, could help us in terms of free lunches for kids—making that part of the day. You know there are things that we could do with that money to help build up our critical infrastructure and be better focused on our people.”
Holscher additionally discussed the fiscal impact of cannabis legalization in a separate interview.
“I will tell you I’m a supporter of legalizing cannabis, as well as the bulk of the population of Kansans,” she said. “Anywhere from 65 to 75 percent of Kansans support legalization. That in Missouri has amounted to $255 million in revenue.”
Asked how she would get cannabis reform through a Republican-controlled legislature, Holscher said she and allies succeeded in passing a medical cannabis bill through the state House of Representatives in 2021 that went on to die in the Senate—putting blame for the ultimate defeat on Masterson, her opponent in the governor’s race.
“You know, I got it passed in the House a few years ago. Guess who stopped it in the Senate? Ty Masterson,” she said. “The things that people want, the things that people support, he has been stopping.”
Later in the interview, Holscher was pressed on how she would succeed in garnering the support of moderate voters while her political opponents tag her as a “radical.”
“The things I’m fighting for—Medicaid expansion, legalizing cannabis, funding of our schools, lowering property taxes—those are all things that are supported by anywhere from 65 to 75 percent of the Kansas population,” she said. “I’m not extreme. I’m mainstream. You know what’s extreme? The fact that my opponent is pushing back against the things that Kansans overwhelmingly support. Time and time again, Ty Masterson has pushed back against Medicaid expansion, legalizing of cannabis.”
Days ahead of the election, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate said the Trump administration’s move to federally reclassify marijuana eases the path in Kansas toward legalizing medical cannabis for patients.
“I think there’s some things that look a little differently now with the federal-level rescheduling,” Holscher said. “That does create a little bit of a difference of attitude among some of my peers… I do feel there’s some difference now, though, with federal rescheduling. Additionally, we already have people out there working to educate my peers in the House and the Senate.”
A poll published last month found that a majority of Kansans support legalizing marijuana for both recreational and medical uses.
The latest edition of the annual Kansas Speaks survey, conducted by Fort Hays State University’s Docking Institute of Public Affairs, shows that Kansans back legalization of recreational marijuana by a margin of 58 percent to 21 percent—including majorities of Republicans, Democrats and independents.
Support for legalizing medical cannabis is even stronger, at 65 percent to 15 percent.
Incumbent Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (D) said last year that it’s time for lawmakers in the state to finally legalize medical marijuana.
After the House of Representatives passed a medical cannabis bill in 2021, it stalled out in the Senate. And while the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee held numerous hearings on the issue, it voted in 2024 to table a limited medical marijuana pilot program bill.
A later effort to revive the medical cannabis bill on the Senate floor ultimately fell short. That measure was filed about a month after the House rejected a Democratic lawmaker’s amendment to a broader drug scheduling bill that would have removed marijuana entirely from the state’s controlled substances law, effectively legalizing it.
In 2024, meanwhile, a state legislative panel voted against a proposed recommendation that lawmakers legalize medical cannabis in 2025.
The legislature’s Special Committee on Medical Marijuana, charged with consideration of possible pathways for medical cannabis reform, said legalizing medical marijuana was premature and that lawmakers should first wait to see how federal rescheduling and other reform efforts unfold.
