Louisiana takes major step forward to expand medical marijuana program
BATON ROUGE, La. Medical marijuana advocates won a significant victory Wednesday in their efforts to jumpstart Louisianas medical marijuana program.
The House voted 62-31 to expand the program to cover more diseases and to make regulatory changes aimed at getting medicinal-grade pot into patients hands more quickly.
The bill by Republican Sen. Fred Mills, a pharmacist from St. Martin Parish, has received Senate backing. Wednesdays vote sends the bill back to the Senate for consideration of House changes. If it gets final passage there, Gov. John Bel Edwards has said he will sign it into law.
Lawmakers created the framework for a medical marijuana program in Louisiana last year, but regulatory hurdles built into the law have slowed its start.
Bill supporters describe children struggling with uncontrollable seizures and patients coping with horrible pain. They said the program only allows medical marijuana in an oil form that cant be smoked. Local sheriffs and district attorneys oppose expansion, calling it a gateway to unfettered, recreational use of marijuana.
Rep. Reid Falconer, R-Mandeville, talked of his precious daughter, who has epilepsy and who has been unable to find medications that end her seizures.
This bill will enable our doctor to have another tool to treat my baby girl, he told his colleagues.
During the evening debate, bill supporter Katie Corkern sat in the back of the House chamber with her son Connor, who uses a wheelchair and has a rare brain disorder that causes uncontrollable seizures.
As he urged passage, Rep. Sam Jones talked of Corkerns son: Since we began this debate, there is one child in this chamber who has had eight seizures.
Rep. Beryl Amedee, R-Gray, said federal drug regulators havent approved medical marijuana, so doctors wont have guidance on dosage or standards to apply.
How is it that the doctors are going to know what to give to the patients? she asked.
Rep. Scott Simon, R-Abita Springs, voted against the proposal, saying he worried about public safety, that were working our way toward legalization of marijuana.
His colleague, Rep. Terry Landry, a former state police superintendent, dismissed ...
