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Louisville Metro Council Health and Education Committee Chair Angela Leet (District 7) and Vice Chair Vicki Welch (District 13) invite the community to attend one of three town hall meetings on the topic of legalizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Each town hall meeting will be held in a different part of the community, with the first town hall starting Monday, February 19 at 6:00pm. Each town hall will start with presentations by panelists both in support and opposition to a resolution calling for the legalization of medical marijuana which is currently being considered by the Louisville Metro Council.
Persons attending the town hall meeting will have the opportunity to ask questions of panelists following opening remarks. Each town hall is expected to last 60-90 minutes and comments received during each event will be given to all members of the Louisville Metro Council.
Town Hall Meeting Dates:
Monday, February 19, 6:00PM – Lyndon City Hall (515 Wood Road)
Monday, February 26, 6:00PM – Louisville Fire Fighters Hall (400 Bakers Lane)
Tuesday, February 27, 6:00PM – Southwick Community Center (3621 Southern Avenue)
For more information on these town hall meetings, please contact Councilwoman Angela Leet at 574-1107 or angela.leet@louisvilleky.gov. https://louisville.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=3335601&GUID=5…
Ten Metro Council members have signed on as co-sponsors of a resolution urging the Kentucky General Assembly to enact legislation that would legalize medical cannabis in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, primary sponsor Bill Hollander (D-9) reported.
“Medical cannabis can help many of our constituents”, Hollander said. “I am pleased that so many of my colleagues agree that we should ask the Kentucky General Assembly to take action to help them,” said Hollander.
Many medical professionals believe that medical cannabis is an effective treatment for chronic pain and post-traumatic stress disorder suffered by military veterans, and it is legally used to ease pain in the majority of states in the nation. Many residents in those states are replacing other drugs, including highly addictive narcotic pain relievers, because they and their physicians have found cannabis to be the most effective drug to provide relief.
Councilwoman Vicki Aubrey Welch (D-13), one of the ten co-sponsors, says she is wholeheartedly in favor of legalizing medical marijuana.
“I have done some research on the use of medical marijuana and found it to be very effective with little or no side effects. I personally know of an elderly person with head and neck cancer that required surgery, radiation and use of morphine post-operatively at home which made her drowsy with loss of appetite,” said Welch. “After using medical marijuana in place of the morphine, she was alert and back to eating normally.”
The resolution urges the Kentucky General Assembly to pass House Bill 166 or any other legislation that would legalize medical cannabis in Kentucky and provide for the care, comfort and relief of any Kentuckian who may benefit. Another bill legalizing medical marijuana, SB 118, was filed in the Kentucky Senate last week.
In addition to Councilmembers Hollander and Welch, the resolution is sponsored by President David James (D-6) and Councilmembers Barbara Sexton Smith (D-4), Angela Leet (R-7), Brandon Coan (D-8), Pat Mulvihill (D-10), Cindi Fowler ((D-14), Marianne Butler (D-15) and Scott Reed (R-16).
The resolution is attached.
The General Assembly’s 2018 session is more than one-third complete, with all action other than concurrences and potential veto overrides currently scheduled to conclude on March 22.
