KWC to host medical cannabis forum

Apr. 22—Kentucky Wesleyan College will host a free medical cannabis forum at 7 p.m. on Tuesday in the Jack T. Wells Activity Center. The forum is presented by the Stanley Reed Political Science and Pre-Law Club at the college.

Eric Schmidt, associate professor of political science, said the club aims to hold a forum every spring on an issue or set of issues that were of interest to the community.

"This is a student-led club and a student-led initiative," Schmidt said. "This forum is also student-led and initiated. They picked this issue because of a bill that was recently passed. They thought it'd be of interest to the local community."

Panelists will be present to answer questions about Senate Bill 47, which was signed into law on March 31 by Gov. Andy Beshear, legalizing the use of medical cannabis for Kentuckians who meet certain parameters.

Simon Hanson, KWC senior and president of club, said after the bill passed, there was "significant student interest" regarding the specifics of the legislation.

"There's a lot of community interest as well, so we at Stanley Reed got together and thought the forum would be a great opportunity to get some community involvement from KWC and Owensboro," he said.

Hanson said he believes there are lots of questions in relation to this bill.

"How enforcement is going to work, why certain medical conditions are covered and why others are not are some of the questions people have," he said. "We're interested in getting as many people that were involved in getting this legislation passed as we could."

Schmidt said the forum will be nonpartisan.

"The idea is to raise the issue and inform the public," he said. "Part of the stake in the bill is that it's been approved but it doesn't take affect until 2025, so there's a de facto period for public comment as the assembly will decide over the next year what kind of regulations are needed to make medical marijuana work in Kentucky."

The panelists include Dr. Don Stacy, radiation oncologist; Daniel Sosh, veteran and cannabis advocate; D.J. Johnson, state representative for district 13; and Julie Cantwell and Kristin Wilcox, Kentucky Moms for Medical Cannabis Advisory Committee board members. Schmidt said Wednesday that the club is looking for a representative from law enforcement to also be a panel member.

"It's not every day you have a panel of five highly qualified people that are able to speak to the masses and it did take a lot of work," Hanson said. "We pride ourselves on being service-oriented at Stanley Reed, especially regarding nonpartisan and political transparency issues."

Hanson said medical cannabis is an important topic to base the forum around this year.

"Nationwide, we have a lot of new revelations, and within psychology, medicine and politics, there are interesting new trends regarding cannabis and legalization efforts," he said. "Especially dealing with the opioid crisis, we have a lot of students here that are either going into medicine or psychology and counseling, and we think medical marijuana especially would be pertinent alternative to opiates."

Hanson is a psychology major with a political science minor.

"Broadly speaking, I think a lot of people are happy that is the case," he said. "Nationwide, it's something Kentucky has been kind of behind on so it's nice to see the legislation step up and take action against the opioid epidemic."

Since the forum was announced, Hanson said he has received comments from students who are looking forward to the event.

"I think especially because it is so impactful to our community regarding catching up with the rest of the nation, we have a lot of students who come from Nevada, Illinois and Michigan where this has been commonplace for the better part of a decade," he said. "It's nice for them to come here and see that Kentucky is taking a step up."

For more information on the forum, contact Schmidt at 270-852-3236 or by email at eric.schmidt@kwc.edu.