An Iowa candidate for governor just said the quiet part out loud — and it’s exactly what Kentucky needs to hear.
In a debate this week, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Rob Sand (currently Iowa’s state auditor) argued that legalizing cannabis would make life easier for law enforcement, not harder. “Every time I talk to police officers, they’d rather deal with someone who was using cannabis than someone who was drunk,” Sand said. His bottom line: “we don’t want to be throwing people in prison just for using them.”
Sand’s pitch isn’t only about common sense — it’s about money, too. He told debate watchers that taxing cannabis the way we tax alcohol could bring Iowa roughly $50 million in the first year and more than $100 million a year after that, money that could help fund schools.
Now here’s the Kentucky question: if police would rather deal with cannabis users than drunks, why is Kentucky still throwing people in jail for it?
Between July 2002 and June 2022, 303,264 Kentuckians were charged with cannabis offenses — about two people every hour, for twenty years. Around 59% were convicted. These aren’t kingpins. These are neighbors, coworkers, and patients.
Kentucky’s medical program exists, but it leaves too many people behind: patients who can’t afford dispensary prices, who live hours from the nearest dispensary, or who simply want to grow a plant at home. That’s why KCFC’s proposed constitutional amendment — mirroring HB225 — would let adults 21 and older possess up to one ounce and cultivate, harvest, and store up to five plants, free of criminal sanction.
An Iowa candidate gets it. It’s time Kentucky did, too.
✍️ Sign the petition: https://change.org/LetKentuckyVote
Reporting via Marijuana Moment — read their full story: https://www.marijuanamoment.net/police-would-rather-deal-with-people-high-on-marijuana-than-drunk-on-alcohol-iowa-governor-candidate-says/