AN ACT relating to crimes and punishments.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky:
Section 1. KRS 218A.1422 is amended to read as follows:
(1) A person is guilty of possession of marijuana when he knowingly and unlawfully possesses marijuana.
(2) (a) A person guilty of possession of marijuana shall, for a first offense, be fined five hundred dollars ($500) and be confined in the county jail for thirty (30) days. The court shall not suspend, probate, or otherwise fail to assess the fine.
(b) In addition to the fine and jail time the court shall order the defendant, at the defendant's cost, to:
1. Receive a substance abuse assessment from a professional of the court's choosing, and a copy of the assessment and treatment and rehabilitation recommendations shall be filed with the court;
2. Complete successfully the course of treatment and rehabilitation recommended to the court; and
3. Pass random drug and alcohol testing ordered by the court.
(c) During the time the defendant is being assessed and receiving treatment and rehabilitation, the court shall suspend the imposition of the original sentence. If, without good cause, the person fails to appear at the designated facility within the time specified by the court, or if any time during the program of treatment prescribed, the authorized clinical director of the facility finds that the person is unwilling to participate in assessment, treatment and rehabilitation or fails to pass a random drug and alcohol test, the director shall notify the sentencing court. The court, following a hearing, shall impose the original jail sentence and shall not suspend, probate, shock probate or otherwise fail to impose the original jail sentence. If, the defendant successfully completes the assessment, treatment, and rehabilitation program, the authorized clinical director of the facility shall notify the sentencing court of the date of the defendant's discharge from the facility, and the court shall suspend the imposition of the original jail sentence.
(d) If, after two (2) years following the date of the conviction, the defendant has not been convicted of, pled guilty to, or entered an Alford plea to any other misdemeanor or felony offense, the court shall expunge the record of the conviction and shall order all records held by any agency or officer sealed. The record may be unsealed only upon a motion to the court in which the conviction occurred to unseal the record. After the record has been sealed the defendant shall, unless precluded by federal law, not have to list the conviction on any application for employment or for any other purpose.
(e) For a second offense, the defendant shall be fined one thousand dollars ($1,000) and be imprisoned in the county jail for not less than sixty (60) days and not more than twelve (12) months. No sentence shall be probated, shock probated, suspended, or otherwise not imposed.
(f) For a third or subsequent offense, the defendant shall be fined one thousand five hundred dollars ($1,500) and shall be imprisoned in the county jail for not less than ninety (90) days and not more than twelve (12) months. No sentence shall be probated, shock probated, suspended, or otherwise not imposed.
(g) A defendant who has been charged with or convicted of possession of marijuana or who has entered a guilty plea or an Alford plea to possession of marijuana shall not be eligible for any form of pretrial diversion[Possession of marijuana is a Class A misdemeanor]. Section 2. KRS 218A.010 is amended to read as follows: As used in this chapter:
(1) "Administer" means the direct application of a controlled substance, whether by injection, inhalation, ingestion, or any other means, to the body of a patient or research subject by:
(a) A practitioner or by his authorized agent under his immediate supervision and pursuant to his order; or
(b) The patient or research subject at the direction and in the presence of the practitioner.
(2) "Anabolic steroid" means any drug or hormonal substance chemically and pharmacologically related to testosterone that promotes muscle growth and includes those substances listed in KRS 218A.090(5) but does not include estrogens, progestins, and anticosteroids.
(3) "Cabinet" means the Cabinet for Health Services.
(4) "Controlled substance" means methamphetamine, or a drug, substance, or immediate precursor in Schedules I through V and includes a controlled substance analogue.
(5) (a) "Controlled substance analogue", except as provided in subparagraph (b), means a substance:
1. The chemical structure of which is substantially similar to the structure of a controlled substance in Schedule I or II; and
2. Which has a stimulant, depressant, or hallucinogenic effect on the central nervous system that is substantially similar to or greater than the stimulant, depressant, or hallucinogenic effect on the central nervous system of a controlled substance in Schedule I or II; or
3. With respect to a particular person, which such person represents or intends to have a stimulant, depressant, or hallucinogenic effect on the central nervous system that is substantially similar to or greater than the stimulant, depressant, or hallucinogenic effect on the central nervous system of a controlled substance in Schedule I or II.
(b) Such term does not include:
1. Any substance for which there is an approved new drug application;
2. With respect to a particular person, any substance if an exemption is in effect for investigational use for that person pursuant to federal law to the extent conduct with respect to such substance is pursuant to such exemption; or
3. Any substance to the extent not intended for human consumption before the exemption described in subparagraph 2. of this paragraph takes effect with respect to that substance.
(6) "Counterfeit substance" means a controlled substance which, or the container or labeling of which, without authorization, bears the trademark, trade name, or other identifying mark, imprint, number, or device, or any likeness thereof, of a manufacturer, distributor, or dispenser other than the person who in fact manufactured, distributed, or dispensed the substance.
(7) "Dispense" means to deliver a controlled substance to an ultimate user or research subject by or pursuant to the lawful order of a practitioner, including the packaging, labeling, or compounding necessary to prepare the substance for that delivery.
(8) "Dispenser" means a person who lawfully dispenses a Schedule II, III, IV, or V controlled substance to or for the use of an ultimate user.
(9) "Distribute" means to deliver other than by administering or dispensing a controlled substance.
(10) "Drug" means:
(a) Substances recognized as drugs in the official United States Pharmacopoeia, official Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia of the United States, or official National Formulary, or any supplement to any of them;
(b) Substances intended for use in the diagnosis, care, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease in man or animals;
(c) Substances (other than food) intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of man or animals; and
(d) Substances intended for use as a component of any article specified in this subsection. It does not include devices or their components, parts, or accessories.
(11) "Immediate precursor" means a substance which is the principal compound commonly used or produced primarily for use, and which is an immediate chemical intermediary used or likely to be used in the manufacture of a controlled substance, the control of which is necessary to prevent, curtail, or limit manufacture.
(12) "Isomer" means the optical isomer, except as used in KRS 218A.050(3) and 218A.070(1)(d). As used in KRS 218A.050(3), the term "isomer" means the optical, positional, or geometric isomer. As used in KRS 218A.070(1)(d), the term "isomer" means the optical or geometric isomer.
(13) "Manufacture", except as provided in KRS 218A.1431, means the production, preparation, propagation, compounding, conversion, or processing of a controlled substance, either directly or indirectly by extraction from substances of natural origin or independently by means of chemical synthesis, or by a combination of extraction and chemical synthesis, and includes any packaging or repackaging of the substance or labeling or relabeling of its container except that this term does not include activities:
(a) By a practitioner as an incident to his administering or dispensing of a controlled substance in the course of his professional practice; or
(b) By a practitioner, or by his authorized agent under his supervision, for the purpose of, or as an incident to, research, teaching, or chemical analysis and not for sale; or
(c) By a pharmacist as an incident to his dispensing of a controlled substance in the course of his professional practice.
(14) "Marijuana" means all parts of the plant Cannabis sp., whether growing or not; the seeds thereof; the resin extracted from any part of the plant; and every compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture, or preparation of the plant, its seeds or resin or any compound, mixture, or preparation which contains any quantity of these substances.
(15) "Narcotic drug" means any of the following, whether produced directly or indirectly by extraction from substances of vegetable origin, or independently by means of chemical synthesis, or by a combination of extraction and chemical synthesis:
(a) Opium and opiate, and any salt, compound, derivative, or preparation of opium or opiate;
(b) Any salt, compound, isomer, derivative, or preparation thereof which is chemically equivalent or identical with any of the substances referred to in paragraph (a) of this subsection, but not including the isoquinoline alkaloids of opium;
(c) Opium poppy and poppy straw;
(d) Coca leaves, except coca leaves and extracts of coca leaves from which cocaine, ecgonine, and derivatives of ecgonine or their salts have been removed;
(e) Cocaine, its salts, optical and geometric isomers, and salts of isomers;
(f) Ecgonine, its derivatives, their salts, isomers, and salts of isomers; and
(g) Any compound, mixture, or preparation which contains any quantity of any of the substances referred to in paragraphs (a) to (f) of this subsection.
(16) "Opiate" means any substance having an addiction-forming or addiction-sustaining liability similar to morphine or being capable of conversion into a drug having addiction-forming or addiction-sustaining liability. It does not include, unless specifically designated as controlled under KRS
218A.030, the dextrorotatory isomer of 3-methoxy-n-methylmorphinan and its salts (dextromethorphan). It does include its racemic and levorotatory forms.
(17) "Opium poppy" means the plant of the species papaver somniferum L., except its seeds.
(18) "Person" means individual, corporation, government or governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership or association, or any other legal entity.
(19) "Poppy straw" means all parts, except the seeds, of the opium poppy, after mowing.
(20) "Pharmacist" means a natural person licensed by this state to engage in the practice of the profession of pharmacy.
(21) "Practitioner" means a physician, dentist, podiatrist, veterinarian, scientific investigator, optometrist as authorized in KRS 320.240, or other person licensed, registered, or otherwise permitted to distribute, dispense, conduct research with respect to, or to administer a controlled substance in the course of professional practice or research in this state. "Practitioner" also includes a physician, dentist, podiatrist, or veterinarian who is a resident of and actively practicing in a state other than Kentucky and who is licensed and has prescriptive authority for controlled substances under the professional licensing laws of another state, unless the person's Kentucky license has been revoked, suspended, restricted, or probated, in which case the terms of the Kentucky license shall prevail.
(22) "Prescription" means a written, electronic, or oral order for a drug or medicine, or combination or mixture of drugs or medicines, or proprietary preparation, signed or given or authorized by a medical, dental, chiropody, veterinarian, or optometric practitioner, and intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease in man or other animals.
(23) "Prescription blank," with reference to a controlled substance, means a document that meets the requirements of KRS 218A.204 and 217.216.
(24) "Production" includes the manufacture, planting, cultivation, growing, or harvesting of a controlled substance.
(25) "Second or subsequent offense" means that for the purposes of this chapter an offense is considered as a second or subsequent offense, if, prior to his conviction of the offense, the offender has at any time been convicted under this chapter, or under any statute of the United States, or of any state relating to substances classified as controlled substances or counterfeit substances, except that a prior conviction for a nontrafficking offense shall be treated as a prior offense only when the subsequent offense is a nontrafficking offense. For the purposes of this section, a conviction voided under KRS 218A.275 or Section 1 of this Act[218A.276] shall not constitute a conviction under this chapter. (26) "Sell" means to dispose of a controlled substance to another person for consideration or in furtherance of commercial distribution. (27) "Tetrahydrocannabinols" means synthetic equivalents of the substances contained in the plant, or in the resinous extractives of the plant Cannabis, sp. or synthetic substances, derivatives, and their isomers with similar chemical structure and pharmacological activity such as the following:
1. Delta 1 cis or trans tetrahydrocannabinol, and their optical isomers;
2. Delta 6 cis or trans tetrahydrocannabinol, and their optical isomers;
3. Delta 3, 4 cis or trans tetrahydrocannabinol, and its optical isomers.
(28) "Traffic," except as provided in KRS 218A.1431, means to manufacture, distribute, dispense, sell, transfer, or possess with intent to manufacture, distribute, dispense, or sell a controlled substance.
(29) "Transfer" means to dispose of a controlled substance to another person without consideration and not in furtherance of commercial distribution.
(30) "Ultimate user" means a person who lawfully possesses a controlled substance for his own use or for the use of a member of his household or for administering to an animal owned by him or by a member of his household.
Section 3. The following KRS section is repealed:
218A.276 Treatment and rehabilitation program for possessors of marijuana—Court's discretion to void conviction.
