LA LEGAL POT BILL KILLED - Louisiana lawmakers Tuesday killed an effort to legalize recreational marijuana, leaving the state's medical cannabis program as the only legal way to secure the drug.
The House Criminal Justice Committee voted 9-4 to scuttle Democratic New Orleans Rep. Candace Newell's House Bill 24 to create a legal recreational marijuana market in Louisiana.
Twenty-two states have already legalized recreational marijuana, the latest being Delaware this week. While there has been growing support of legalizing marijuana for recreational use, law enforcement officials opposed the bill as a public safety issue.
Though lawmakers rejected the outright legalization of recreational marijuana, the state's cannabis evolution has escalated during the past decade in liberalizing its laws. Louisiana's medical marijuana program has continued to expand, and the state decriminalized small amounts of marijuana for personal use in 2021 through a bill by Democratic Shreveport Rep. Cedric Glover.
Current law makes possession of 14 grams or less — about half an ounce — a misdemeanor in all cases and limits the fine to $100 with no jail time. Proponents for legalizing recreational marijuana estimate an "underground" marijuana market of $1 billion in the State of Louisiana alone.
