Tagged: Capitol Bureau

A proposal that limits the amount of pseudoephedrine consumers can buy in a month could make it out the state House of Representatives intact.

The Senate passed a bill last week that would limit consumers to seven point two grams of pseudoephedrine every month, or roughly two boxes of cold medicine.

The House committee charged with overseeing the budget has taken its first official steps in the process.

The House Appropriations and Revenue Committee took reports from subcommittees and accepted their recommendations at a meeting today.

The House plan deviates slightly from Governor Steve Beshear's proposal. It delays the start of substance abuse programs in Medicaid and the creation of an Adult Abuse registry, saving more than two million dollars in the process.

An effort to strengthen the training alcohol support specialists receive is moving through the General Assembly.

House Bill 335 is sponsored by state Representative Joni Jenkins. It would require drug and alcohol support to receive extra training to be licensed in that field.

Jenkins told a committee last week that the extra training hours would be the equivalent of doing coursework for a master’s degree.

Kentucky lawmakers are doubling down on efforts to fight synthetic drugs.

Synthetic drugs are chemically-altered substances meant to simulate other drugs. House Bill 481 would drastically increase penalties for crimes related to synthetic drugs. The measure is the General Assembly’s latest attempt to catch up with increasingly-popular methods of getting high.

Governor Steve Beshear says he won’t back down on efforts to bring casino gambling to Kentucky, despite another defeat on the issue last week.

Since his first term as governor in 2007, Beshear has made expanding gambling his main priority. This year, he attempted to pass a constitutional amendment dealing with the issue through the state Senate. The bill fell seven votes short of passage in a vote that critics say should be the end of the issue. But Beshear says the vote gave more resolve to the business leaders and horse racing interests who back the idea.