Foolish consistency: 2011 legislature sticks with old, failed marijuana penalties
The 2011 legislature adjourned on
June 23, and Louisiana still does not have a law that effectively protects
medical marijuana patients from arrest. In the last several sessions, Louisiana
legislators have been too busy trying to increase marijuana penalties and
discriminate against marijuana users to introduce compassionate medical
marijuana legislation. Please email
your state legislators to ask them to provide
medical marijuana patients with the protection they need.
In 2011, the legislature almost passed a welfare discrimination bill, but
backed off at the last second after MPP members took action on a June 16 alert.
H.B.
7 would have required at least 20% of Family Independence Temporary
Assistance Program benefit recipients to undergo a drug test. Recipients who
failed one test would be ineligible until completing a rehabilitation program
and testing clean. H.B. 7 passed the House, 67-26, and a Senate committee, but
did not receive a Senate vote. Also, the legislature passed HCR 16, which
directs the Drug Policy Board to coordinate a study of the overall impact and
estimated aggregate costs of illegal drug use in Louisiana.
In 2010, the legislature focused on
bad bills, although the worst of them died without passage. The House
considered two welfare discrimination bills, H.B. 611 and H.B. 617, which would have required drug testing of
cash assistance recipients and would have suspended cash assistance after two
positive tests. H.B. 611 died in a House committee, while H.B. 617 passed the
House, 61-27, but died in Senate committee. The House also considered and
failed to pass H.B. 139, which would have branded repeat drug
offenders with a "scarlet letter," mandating that they carry special
"DRUG OFFENDER" driver’s licenses.
Learn
about Louisiana's marijuana laws
Louisiana has some of the harshest
marijuana laws in the country, and it has the fifth-highest marijuana arrest
rate in the United States. First-offense possession of even a single joint is
punishable by up to six months in jail. In 2010, S.B. 576 passed into law, and actually increased the
penalty for second-offense marijuana possession by including a mandatory
minimum fine of at least $250 and 48 hours in jail. In 2010 as well, the
legislature passed H.B. 117, a parole revocation bill that treats with
slightly more lenience certain offenders who are convicted of simple possession
of marijuana while on parole. It also passed S.B. 502, which removed possession
of less than 60 lbs. of marijuana from the legal definition of racketeering, so
that only those individuals who possessed 60 lbs. or more may be charged.
You can learn more about Louisiana’s
marijuana penalties and enforcement by reading this report by Jon Gettman, Ph.D. You can
send a letter to your legislators asking them to reduce the penalty for possession of marijuana to a civil fine or
asking them to end marijuana prohibition entirely.
Stay
Connected
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marijuana policy reform in Louisiana, be sure to subscribe to
MPP’s free legislative alert service.