State Senator Perry Clark, a Democrat from Louisville, Kentucky, is promoting a piece of legislation that would legalize medical marijuana in the state. He calls cannabis a “miracle plant.” The state legislature is expected to reconvene in January.

Clark called for other Kentucky lawmakers to help him “end this folly” of barring people who are suffering from being able to use a drug that could help them.

“The concept of prohibition of a medicine that you grow with a seed that you put in a garden is an anathema to freedom,” he told supporters who gathered Thursday afternoon in the Capitol Annex. “I say it’s time we get brave. We educate. This is a liberty issue to me.”

Clark will dub the bill the “Gatewood Galbraith Medical Marijuana Memorial Act” in honor of the late Lexington attorney who was the state’s leading proponent of marijuana legalization.

A similar measure by the same name failed in a legislative session earlier this year in Kentucky, one of the nation’s top marijuana-producing states. Kentucky has a near-perfect climate for growing marijuana, and was once a major producer of industrial hemp before the federal government banned it. Even so, the idea of legalizing marijuana for medical use, which has already been done in 17 other states, is frowned on by most Kentucky lawmakers and has little chance of passing.

But of course, not everyone is on board.

Kentucky State Police are among the leading opponents.

“The legalization of marijuana, whether for medicinal use or hemp growth, presents serious challenges to Kentucky’s law enforcement,” said Capt. David Jude. “To distinguish what would be grown and or possessed for ‘legal use’ versus ‘illegal use’ would prove to be difficult, making our enforcement efforts less efficient and possibly less effective. I feel confident that our legislators will consider the impact that legalizing a drug like marijuana will have on all of our communities as well as law enforcement.”

The impact? Thousands of sick people getting medicine that is less dangerous and more effective than what they take now? More jobs, tax revenue?

If it’s such a hassle for law enforcement to distinguish between legal and illegal marijuana, maybe it should all be legal instead of punishing people for choosing a safer form of medicine and recreation.

- Joe Klare