WHAS: UC professor expresses concerns about Kentucky's medical marijuana executive order

On Jan. 1, an executive order from Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear's desk went into effect, allowing Kentuckians to purchase medical marijuana in states where it is legal and then bring it back.

Kentucky residents with no more than 8 ounces of medical marijuana will be pardoned from possession charges, and to be eligible, a doctor must diagnose and certify the patient with one of 21 conditions.

WHAS, Louisville's ABC affiliate, featured University of Cincinnati cannabis researcher LaTrice Montgomery, PhD, in its coverage leading up to the executive order going into effect. 

"I’m like, wow, there’s no sort of tracking,” Montgomery told WHAS after reviewing the executive order's language. “That’s what I’m a huge advocate of, is just tracking everything because I think it would help for us to know first. How many people are actually being affected by this?”

Montgomery said she is also concerned that there is no requirement for patients to follow up with physicians after receiving a diagnosis, which could lead to people mixing marijuana with prescription medications.

“We don’t know drug-drug interactions, we still have so many unanswered questions,” said Montgomery, research associate professor in the Addiction Sciences Division of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience in the UC College of Medicine.

Watch or read the WHAS report.

Featured photo at top courtesy of Unsplash.