How will Kansas enforce marijuana ban as recreational sales begin in bordering Missouri?

As Missouri prepares to allow recreational marijuana sales, Kansas law enforcement agencies operating in the Kansas City area have no plans to change how they enforce their state’s total ban on the drug.

“We are going to continue to enforce all state and local laws as they relate to marijuana in Kansas,” said Shelby Colburn, a spokesperson for Johnson County Sheriff Calvin Hayden.

Missouri voters last week approved expanding their state’s medical marijuana program to include recreational sales. The new program, which will be rolled out in the coming months, will allow the general public, including out-of-state residents, to buy pot without a prescription.

Kansas is now bordered by two states, Colorado and Missouri, with recreational marijuana. Oklahoma has medical marijuana and will vote in March on recreational sales.

Kansas law enforcement first confronted legal recreational weed in 2014, when Colorado sales began and officers contended with motorists taking marijuana into Kansas along highways in the state’s vast western plain. Officials, including Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, at the time dutifully reminded Kansans that marijuana was still illegal.

But the coming division of the dense, urban Kansas City area — with weed legal on the eastern side of the metro and banned on the western side — presents a different kind of situation. In the metro, tens of thousands of people cross the borders of both states seamlessly every day for work and play.

Missouri dispensaries have already said they expect Kansas customers to stream across the state line to legally purchase joints, gummies and other products.

Kansas law enforcement agencies with jurisdictions near the Kansas-Missouri border contacted by The Star in the wake of the Missouri vote signaled they intend to enforce Kansas law – and that means no pot.

“Kansas law and enforcement remains the same, therefore we do not anticipate any changes,” said Nancy Chartrand, a spokesperson for the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department.

That said, the agencies don’t appear poised for a major crackdown, either.

“I personally have heard rumors/ false accusations that are not true, such as law enforcement will conduct roadblocks on I-435,” Overland Park Police Officer John Lacy, a spokesperson for the department, wrote in an email. “There is no ‘special enforcement’ we are doing here in Overland Park.”

Kansas has one of the strictest marijuana prohibitions in the country

Still, concerns have existed for years over how law enforcement — specifically the Kansas Highway Patrol — enforces drug laws on highways.

The ACLU of Kansas has been fighting the Highway Patrol for nearly three years in federal court over a tactic used by state troopers called the “two step,” in which a trooper at the end of a traffic stop takes a couple steps away and then returns to the vehicle to ask more questions.

The move is designed to initiate a new, voluntary interaction between the trooper and driver – allowing the trooper to continue probing for incriminating information even if they don’t have reasonable suspicion to continue stopping the vehicle. It can also buy time for troopers to get a drug-sniffing dog to the location of the stop.

In a lawsuit, the ACLU alleges the “two step” violates the U.S. Constitution’s protections against unreasonable search and seizure. Critics of the practice say the Highway Patrol has used it to scrutinize drivers coming from Colorado – and, presumably, could use it on drivers coming from Missouri, too.

“Multiple KHP troopers and supervisors testified during depositions that coming to or from a ‘drug source state’ such as Colorado could contribute to reasonable suspicion,” ACLU attorneys wrote in a September court filing.

The Highway Patrol says in its court filings that even if the agency disproportionately stops and detains out-of-state drivers for dog sniffs, the practice doesn’t violate the right to enter and leave Kansas. Both the ACLU and the Highway Patrol have filed motions for summary judgment, asking Kansas Federal District Court Judge Kathryn Vratil to rule without holding a trial.

“As you see Kansas become one of the last remaining states in the region where no marijuana, medical or recreational, there’s a significant concern that the Kansas Highway Patrol will continue to focus its traffic enforcement efforts on out-of-state vehicles for the purposes of catching individuals who are transporting drugs across state lines, whether that be a small amount of a large amount,” Sharon Brett, ACLU of Kansas legal director, said.

Lt. Candice Breshears, a spokesperson for the Highway Patrol, said in a statement that the agency is aware some states have legalized recreational marijuana and that others are exploring the option.

“Knowing this, the KHP has continued to remain focused on removing impaired drivers from Kansas highways and roadways, all while providing service, courtesy, and protection to the motoring public,” Breshears said.

Kansas is one of only three remaining states that has no form of legal marijuana — either a medical or recreational program, or some form of legal THC products, the substance that causes the high in marijuana. Under Kansas law, possession of marijuana is a Class B misdemeanor punishable by a maximum of six months in jail, and a fine of up to $1,000, for a first time offense.

“I think the priority among law enforcement in general in Kansas has shifted on marijuana,” said Ed Klumpp, a former Topeka police chief who is now a lobbyist for several Kansas law enforcement associations.

Klumpp said officers are still concerned with people who may be distributing and selling illegal marijuana. He also voiced concern over individuals who are attempting to extract THC because of the dangers involved in that process.

“But the individual possession, unless there’s some other underlying factor, I don’t think is nearly as strictly enforced as it used to be,” Klumpp said.

Some municipalities have considered decriminalizing marijuana but few have actually taken action. Prairie Village last year debated decriminalizing marijuana but the idea didn’t advance through the city council. The city would have been the first in Johnson County to take such a step.

The Wichita city council in September voted to decriminalize marijuana, likely eliminating 750 to 850 prosecutions a year for marijuana possession in the city’s municipal court. Police can still make arrests, but it will be up to the district attorney to bring charges under state law.

Any statewide action on marijuana will need to come from the Kansas Legislature. In 2021, the House passed medical marijuana legislation but the proposal faltered in the Senate. A special committee has been meeting this fall in hopes of bringing legislators closer to an agreement.

Missouri’s vote to allow recreational sales doesn’t appear to have significantly affected Kansas legislators.

Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican, said last month the issue was not a priority. His spokesperson, Mike Pirner, said in a text message this week that his position has not changed.

Democrats have continued to urge the Senate to act, however. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, who has supported medical marijuana for years, was also reelected last week – an outcome some see as vindicating her position.

“The voters have been clear time and time again that legalizing medical marijuana is a top policy priority, and I couldn’t agree with them more,” House Minority Leader Tom Sawyer, a Wichita Democrat, said in a statement.

Daniel Shafton, executive director of the Kansas Cannabis Chamber of Commerce, said he hopes Missouri’s recreational legalization expedites the timeline, but that it could change how the Kansas legislation itself is formed.

Conversations have taken place about ensuring individuals with medical cards in other states are not penalized for bringing products across state lines, he said. But those conversations, however, have not extended to how law enforcement should respond to marijuana bought legally for non-medical reasons.

“If Kansas goes super, super restrictive on their language then we’re going to run into the same issue as if it wasn’t passed in the first place,” Shafton said.

State Sen. Rob Olson, an Olathe Republican who chairs the special committee, said he wasn’t concerned about Kansas’ legalization status as it relates to neighbors. The final bill, Olson said, will include thorough protocols for law enforcement’s handling of the drug.

“The law enforcement is gonna enforce the law,” he said.

Currie Myers, who was the Johnson County sheriff from 2003 to 2005, has called on the Legislature to approve medical marijuana. He is focused on what he views as the medical benefits of the plant and says it could be especially helpful to veterans.

But Myers also fears Kansas’ increasingly isolated position on pot could harm police if they are required to enforce the law as written as the state’s neighbors loosen their rules.

“It puts Kansas law enforcement in a position where it could give them a bad community relationship,” he said.