AN ACT relating to cannabis.
SB164 would substantially decriminalize cannabis for adults 21 and older in Kentucky by creating a new statutory exemption for possession, trafficking, and cultivation of a “personal use quantity of cannabis.” Under the bill, those activities would not be treated as criminal offenses, would not trigger arrest, and would not be grounds for probation or parole revocation. The bill defines a personal use quantity to include up to one ounce of plant cannabis, up to five grams of resin or concentrates, certain low-THC cannabis products, or up to five plants.
The bill also rewrites Kentucky’s cannabis-related criminal statutes to carve out personal-use conduct from possession, trafficking, cultivation, drug paraphernalia, and forfeiture provisions. It keeps penalties in place for larger-scale conduct, but removes criminal liability for personal-use amounts and excludes cannabis accessories from the drug paraphernalia ban. In addition, the bill amends probation conditions so cannabis use is treated differently from other controlled-substance violations, and it limits forfeiture rules so they do not apply to personal-use cannabis offenses.
SB164 would significantly alter KRS Chapter 218A and related statutes by replacing the current marijuana framework with a cannabis-based framework that exempts adult personal-use possession, trafficking, and cultivation from criminal penalties. It would also amend drug paraphernalia, forfeiture, probation, and tax provisions to align with the new personal-use exemption, while preserving criminal sanctions for larger quantities and unauthorized commercial activity outside the medicinal cannabis chapter. The bill further creates a retroactive expungement process in KRS Chapter 431 for qualifying cannabis and paraphernalia convictions, requiring courts to vacate and expunge eligible records and, in some cases, restore voting rights for expunged felony convictions.
The available record shows no committee transcript and no recorded votes, so there is no documented floor or committee debate to gauge support or opposition. Based on the bill text, the measure appears strongly reform-oriented and aimed at reducing criminal penalties and clearing past records for low-level cannabis conduct. Its structure suggests support for cannabis decriminalization and record relief, while preserving enforcement against larger-scale trafficking and noncompliant commercial activity.
The main points of contention likely center on the bill’s broad decriminalization of adult cannabis conduct, including the removal of arrest authority and the retroactive expungement of prior convictions. Opponents would likely focus on public safety, enforcement, and the bill’s treatment of trafficking and cultivation as noncriminal when limited to personal-use quantities, while supporters would emphasize reduced criminal justice involvement, relief from collateral consequences, and consistency with medicinal cannabis policy. Another likely issue is the bill’s detailed redefinition of cannabis and its interaction with existing hemp, medicinal cannabis, and controlled-substance laws, which could raise implementation and enforcement questions.