© 2024 KMUW
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

State Attorney General To Study Effect Of Colorado Pot On Kansas

Rusty Blazenhoff
/
flickr Creative Commons

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt has launched a statewide project to collect information about how marijuana acquired in Colorado is entering and affecting Kansas.

Schmidt says that since Colorado’s widely publicized decision to legalize acquisition and possession of small amounts of marijuana, Kansas law enforcement agencies have consistently had problems in Kansas involving marijuana acquired in Colorado.

According to a release from the Attorney General's office, existing criminal justice information systems are not equipped to track the incoming marijuana because they do not collect information about the origin of the drug and cannot readily be modified to do so. Schmidt has sent a request for information to all county and district attorneys, sheriffs and chiefs of police throughout the state surveying them about their experience with Colorado marijuana in their jurisdictions. More than 500 surveys were distributed last week.

Once survey responses are received and compiled later this spring, Schmidt says he will make them publicly available so the data can be evaluated by the public, by law enforcement officials and by policymakers.

Anecdotal reports of the types of problems Kansas law enforcement has encountered with marijuana brought from the neighboring state include people driving under the influence of Colorado marijuana and increased Kansas juvenile access to marijuana products. While the reports have been more numerous from counties near the state line, Schmidt says they have come from throughout the state.

--

Follow Abigail Wilson on Twitter, @AbigailKMUW

To contact KMUW News or to send in a news tip, reach us at news@kmuw.org.