The Louisiana House passed a bill yesterday that would legalize low-THC medical marijuana and create a system by which patients could access the medicine. The bill is a very limited version of medical marijuana, but unlike most other states that have passed low-THC medical marijuana bills, Louisiana included a provision for limited cultivation in state. Most other states with similarly restrictive programs allow possession, but no legal way to obtain the meds. Per NOLA:
The House of Representatives on Wednesday (May 11) passed medical marijuana legislation designed to allow patients access to the drug nearly 40 years after the state first legalized the drug in the late 1970s.
The sweeping legislation seeks to provide a specific type of medical marijuana product — an oil pressed from the plant — that contains extremely low levels of the chemicals that make it a psychotropic drug. It allows for doctors to “recommend” the drug rather than prescribe it, which doctors need to avoid risking their DEA license allowing them to prescribe narcotics.
The bill will now head back to the Senate, where a slightly different version was already passed. It’s expected that the bill will pass again in the Louisiana Senate, with some potentially minor tweaks. Assuming the bill becomes law, Southern University and LSU will have the right to grow all of the medical marijuana for the state. If the Universities decline to take the state up on the offer (have to decide by September), a private company would be hired to perform the task.
