GOP Lawmakers In This Southern State Kill Cannabis Decriminalization Measure With No Explanation

A Louisiana House bill that would decriminalize marijuana in the Pelican State died Tuesday in the House Criminal Justice Committee, before ever advancing to the House floor.

The measure was sponsored by Democratic representative Candace Newell, who maintained that marijuana distribution could bolster the state economy.

“We should not still be criminalizing people when in other states their economy is flourishing,” Newell said. 

The bill would be dependent on the lawmakers providing for a statutory regulatory system for legal cannabis sales and distribution, as well as a sales tax. Under the measure, criminal penalties related to the possession, distribution, or dispensing, or possession with intent to distribute cannabis, would be removed.

The proposed law would have removed marijuana, THC, and chemical derivatives of THC as Schedule I substances under the Uniform Controlled Dangerous Substances Law. But when the committee decided to involuntarily defer the measure in a 9-4 vote, and none of the GOP lawmakers explained their stance on the issue, Newell deemed it “disrespectful."

“I was not naive enough to think that the bill would make it out of (committee) ... but I was expecting a little bit more of an educated conversation to happen,” Newell told the Associated Press.

Newell remains hopeful adult-use cannabis will be legalized in Louisiana in her “lifetime.”

Louisiana legalized medical marijuana in 2015. The first dispensing in the state happened in 2019. In 2020, the program was expanded, allowing medical marijuana use with a doctor’s written recommendation for any debilitating condition. 

In 2021, Democratic governor John Bel Edwards signed a bill decriminalizing possession of small amounts (less than 14 grams) of cannabis statewide. 

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