Last verified: May 2026
Mayor Tyrone Garner’s Diversion Program
Tyrone Garner served as Mayor of Kansas City, Kansas from December 2021 through December 2025 — KCK’s first Black mayor. In 2024, Garner announced the city’s new marijuana diversion program, effective October 1, 2024.
Garner framed the program as a compassionate workaround to the prohibition framework his city couldn’t directly override:
"We can’t decriminalize it here at the local level, but what we can do is educate."
How the Diversion Works
The diversion program operates within the existing Kansas state-law framework. Individuals charged with low-level marijuana offenses in KCK municipal court can:
- View a short educational video about the harms and policy context of marijuana use.
- Pay a nominal administrative fee.
- Avoid an in-person court appearance for sentencing.
- Avoid conviction — the diversion is non-conviction-creating.
The diversion functions similarly to the pretrial diversion programs available in other Kansas jurisdictions, but with substantially lower friction and a focus on education rather than treatment.
Wyandotte County DA Mark Dupree’s Informal Decline
Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree’s office has informally adopted similar declination practices for low-quantity cases. The combined effect: in KCK and broader Wyandotte County, low-level cannabis cases are unlikely to result in conviction whether they enter via the city diversion program or via state-court charging.
The KCK Demographic and Geographic Context
Kansas City, KS (population ~156,000) is the most diverse city in Kansas. The Wyandotte County demographic includes substantial Black, Hispanic, and immigrant populations. The Garner diversion program reflects the same Black-political-class civil-rights tradition that produced Atlanta’s 2017 cannabis ordinance — though the structural differences (Kansas state-law preemption + no ballot initiative) mean KCK’s reform took a diversion form rather than a fine-reduction form.
The Missouri Border Reality
State Avenue in KCK is a 5-minute walk to the Missouri border. Westport, the Country Club Plaza, and Midtown KCMO dispensaries sit literally a block from the state line. For KCK residents, the cross-border drive economy is the dominant practical cannabis market. See Missouri cross-border page.
The combination of (1) KCK city-level diversion + (2) Wyandotte DA decline + (3) Missouri 5-minute drive means KCK residents face among the lowest functional cannabis-policy enforcement burden in Kansas — even though the state-law framework remains identical.
What Comes After Garner
Mayor Garner completed his term in December 2025. His successor (sworn in early 2026) inherits the diversion program; the program continues in effect as of May 2026. Future leadership changes at the city or DA level could alter the framework.
The KCK / Lawrence / Wichita Comparison
Each Kansas decriminalization regime takes a slightly different form:
- Lawrence (March 2019) — $1 fine ordinance + DA decline (October 2019). Functional non-prosecution.
- Wichita (Sept 2022) — ordinance repeal eliminated city-court prosecution. State-court charging available but typically declined.
- KCK (Oct 2024) — diversion program + DA informal decline. Education-and-fee-based; non-conviction-creating.
All three operate under the same Kansas constitutional and statutory framework. The differences in form reflect the cultural and political differences in each city. Lawrence’s university-progressive culture, Wichita’s libertarian-conservative culture, and KCK’s Black-political-class civil-rights culture all produced softening of cannabis enforcement — but through very different mechanisms.
State-Trooper Reality Across All Three
Kansas Highway Patrol troopers retain charging authority under state law in Lawrence, Wichita, and KCK. None of the city-level reforms binds KHP. Highway interdiction (especially on I-70 and I-35 corridors) continues regardless of city-level reform.
For in-depth cannabis education, dosing guides, safety information, and research summaries, visit our partner site TryCannabis.org
Related on this site: Lawrence Loophole, Kansas Preemption, Wichita Cannabis — 2015 Question 1.