‘It doesn’t make sense’: Kansas marijuana advocates rally on State Line
PRARIE VILLAGE, Mo. — The Cannabis Justice Coalition’s rally took place at Weltner Park in Prairie Village on Friday evening. The park runs right along State Line road, dividing Kansas and Missouri, and that was by design.
Former U.S. District Attorney Barry Grissom is on the board of the coalition.
“I mean, as we stand here, I’m looking across the street to Missouri, where if I’m over there and I’m using cannabis, I don’t have to worry about losing my liberty, I don’t have to worry about being incarcerated, having my property seized. If I’m on this side of line, I do!” he said.
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The rally featured vendors of CBD products, which are legal in Kansas. There was also a time for speakers, both candidates for public office and advocates for legalized marijuana, who spoke about their views on the drug. Many speakers focused on medicinal usage, providing personal testimony on how marijuana could help their friends and family.
Marijuana is still fully criminalized in The Sunflower State and Prairie Village Councilwoman and founder of the Cannabis Justice Coalition Inga Selders says, it’s outdated.
“It just, it doesn’t make any sense that it’s legal right across the street,” Selders said.
“And then here you can be prosecuted and serve some serious time for being caught with cannabis.”
She says the state is losing millions of dollars in revenue and instead, Kansans are taking their money to Missouri.
“Kansas residents are going across state lines to purchase cannabis when they could be purchasing it here. And those tax dollars could be here at home in Kansas,” Selders said.
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She also said that instead of fighting marijuana, law enforcement should be focusing on more important tasks, like the Fentanyl crisis.
“I want my tax dollars and the resources of our police officers to be going to looking at things like that, not petty crimes of cannabis when it’s legal right across the street.”
Sandwiched between two states that have legalized recreational usage, Grissom says that he’s noticed a pattern at dispensaries near the state line.
“Practically one-quarter of everybody in Kansas lives in Johnson County,” he said.
“And the truth be known, those folks, when you canvass, they’re going across the street to Missouri. We’re losing revenue and we’re putting our folks in peril when they come back into Kansas if they get caught using it.”
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