Legal marijuana in Louisiana. Just a matter of time?
There have been many positive changes to marijuana laws over the past few years. I think I speak for everyone when I say it took the majority of Louisiana residents by surprise. The train has definitely left the station and it appears to be speeding up.
House Bill 699, sponsored by Representative Richard Nelson (R), has seen more than its fair share of roadblocks to getting passed. With that, the ambitious recreational use bill has been changed multiple times in the hopes of sweetening the deal enough for passage. The hearts and minds of the people appear to be changing from past ways of thinking.
As of July, first offense marijuana possession under a half ounce has been decriminalized. Also, after January 1, 2022, smokable medical marijuana will be approved for sale. These are great steps in the right direction, but there’s always room for expanding the marijuana program in Louisiana. A general ballot for adult use marijuana will be up for a vote in November 2022. If it passes, anyone over the age of 21 will be able to possess up to 2.5 pounds, buy one ounce per day at retail dispensaries, and cultivate up to six plants per person (twelve plants maximum per household). Although, whether or not residents will need a personal cultivation license is currently up in the air.
In a recent poll, about 70% of Louisiana residents approve of both medicinal and adult use recreational marijuana. Just talking to people locally, you can tell that the tide has shifted. Everyone from teachers to law enforcement officers either support it or concede that it’s only a matter of time before legalization happens in the state. Just recently, Louisiana State University’s company partner, Good Day Farm, has invested significant money for retrofitting a vacant industrial park in Ruston into the largest medical marijuana grow in the state… by a very large margin. Once all phases of expansion have been completed, marijuana production will be at a capacity that will outpace even the most optimistic projections for demands of the medical marijuana market several times over. So, one could conclude that they’re operating under the assumption that adult use marijuana legalization is just over the horizon.
These are all very encouraging stats, but ultimately they mean nothing if voters are absent come election time. Even if you’re not interested in this happening (and I assume you are if you’ve made it this far), just consider all the economic and social benefits that could come to the state. No doubt there are pitfalls to this happening, but luckily for us, there are roughly seven years of data from other states that were the early adopters to recreational legalization.
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