Jacob Redmond
Well-Known Member
Both chambers of the Louisiana Legislature have now approved medical marijuana legislation that seeks to give certain patients who need it access to the drug. The House of Representatives OK'd the measure Thursday (June 4), by a vote of 70-29.
If the bill becomes law, Louisiana will become the 24th state, plus Washington, D.C., where patients have legal access to medical marijuana. The state will also become the first in the Southeast to have a legal medical marijuana dispensary system.
Gov. Bobby Jindal told reporters last month that he would sign he bill, sponsored by Sen. Fred Mills, R-New Iberia, if it gets to his desk. The last step before it reaches Jindal's office is a vote from the Senate to approve amendments tacked on the House side. That body endorsed an earlier version of the bill on May 4, by a vote of 22-13.
While the Legislature legalized marijuana for medical purposes 1978, and then again in 1991, there's no mechanism in current law that allows for the legal dispensing of the drug. The Department of Health and Hospitals was ordered to write rules for dispensing it nearly a quarter century ago, but the rules never adequately implemented the intent of the legislation. Doctors can legally prescribe it, patients can legally use it, but patients can't access it in the state legally. In short, the system lacks a middleman. The legislation (SB 143) gives authority to three state boards to set rules regulating a tightly constrained system.
State Rep. Helena Moreno, D-New Orleans, who presented the bill for Mills on the House floor Thursday, fielded questions for more than hour. Mills sat behind her, talking off to the side with House members who walked up to him during the debate to air their individual concerns.
Some lawmakers, including Rep. Mike Huval, R-Breaux Bridge, spoke from the lectern about loved ones who could have benefitted from medical marijuana. Huval's brother, David, died of cancer last month, he said. The lawmaker said he wished his brother had medical marijuana to help him through chemotherapy: "It kept him alive, but God he suffered."
Much of Thursday's floor debate, though, was centered on who would get the contract to grow the marijuana, the terms of the contract and whether or not the bill was just a segue to legalize marijuana for recreational use.
"I want to remind you all what this is all about," said Moreno during her closing statement on the bill. "This is about helping people who are literally begging us, begging us, to help them finally stop their suffering."
While the vote was taken, as some lawmakers watching the voting board saw that a clear majority of representatives' names lit up in green, rather than red, applause broke out from the floor.
Here's How The System Would Work
Those with a prescription could obtain the drug in non-smokable form -- like oils or a pill -- at one of 10 dispensaries scattered across the state. The bill authorizes one cultivation site.
The cultivation site was originally supposed to have been selected through a public bid process. But an amendment added on the House floor Thursday gives first priority to the LSU and Southern University Ag Centers to host the site, if the centers want the job.
The bill restricts the use of medical marijuana to patients suffering from glaucoma, spastic quadriplegia and for those undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer. However, the legislation requests that the Louisiana Board of Medical Examiners submit recommendations of other qualifying conditions or diseases -- like epilepsy or AIDS -- that should be added to the list. The deadline for those recommendations is 60 days before the next legislative session.
The Louisiana Board of Medical Examiners would set rules about prescriptions, Louisiana Board of Pharmacy would set rules about dispensaries; and the Louisiana Department of Agriculture would set rules for a single cultivation site.
Rep. Patrick Connick, R-Marrero, tacked on the amendment giving the LSU and Southern Ag centers the cultivation contract after a number of lawmakers expressed uneasiness over the idea of a private entity landing a huge state contract to grow marijuana -- possibly a very profitable venture. The apparent potential for shady dealings prompted Rep. Kirk Talbot, R-River Ridge, to bring up the riverboat casino license scandals of the 1990s. "That was a nightmare," he said.
Moreover, Connick posed, "If someone's going to make a profit from this, why not the state?"
Should the Ag centers refuse the cultivation site contract, an amendment added by Moreno on the House floor lists specific processes for the selection of the site and spells out provisions that must be included in the contract.
Frankie Gould, the director of communications and public relations for the LSU AgCenter, said Thursday it was too soon for the center to respond as to whether or not they're willing or able to host the production site. Until the bill becomes law, if it does, and the three agencies promulgate the rules, "it's a little bit premature," she said.
The 10 dispensary sites located in different parts of the state would be established at existing pharmacies, where medical marijuana will be distributed to patients with a prescription from their doctor.
The bill also lets the state track sales, in a similar manner to pseudoephedrine, in order to detect "doctor shopping."
A sunset clause will force the Legislature in five years to readopt the law. The five-year expiration is intended to give lawmakers the opportunity to explore the impact of legal access to medial marijuana and possibly re-evaluate the system.
By the time the rules are promulgated, a cultivation site selected, the product grown and readied for distribution, Mills estimated it would be about two years -- 24 months, he said -- before the first patient can actually access medical marijuana. "It's going to take a while for the product to ramp up," he said.
How It Got Pushed Through The Legislature
Mills, a pharmacist by occupation, became aware of structural holes in the state's medical marijuana law when he was the director of the state pharmacy board in the late 1990s. Patients and doctors asked him how to access it, and he learned it was legal but not accessible.
When other states started legalizing medical marijuana in recent years, he received more calls, this time as a legislator.
Mills sponsored similar medical marijuana legislation in 2014, but it was killed by a large margin early in the process, in the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare. The same committee this year endorsed the legislation without an objection from any member.
He attributed the shift of support this year to the fact that the Louisiana Sheriffs' Association worked with him to get the bill into a posture in which they felt comfortable removing their opposition. Last year, the group opposed the bill "vehemently," according to the words of Louisiana Sheriffs' Association Executive Director Mike Ranatza. The sheriffs group did not officially support the legislation; their official stance was neutral. But Ranatza sat at Mills side -- a symbolic show of support -- during hearings on the bill, explaining that the system he proposed was crafted under compromise with his organization.
Ranatza also said the wishes of colleague's daughter, who suffered from pancreatic cancer, inspired him to consider removing opposition that would have effectively shielded the bill from passing. Alison Neustrom, the 42-year-old daughter of Lafayette Parish Sheriff Michael Neustrom, told Ranatza after last year's hearing that she wished the sheriffs organization could find a way not to oppose the legal access to medical marijuana for patients like her. She died a few months later, on Sept. 10, 2014.
Mills said the most difficult task in winning support from his colleagues in the Legislature has been dispelling the notion that medical marijuana is a pathway to full-on legalization.
Even though he is not pushing recreational marijuana legalization, groups who clearly support that agenda have lobbied other lawmakers on behalf of the medical marijuana bill -- scaring some legislators off. House Health and Welfare Committee chairman Scott Simon, R-Abita Springs, mentioned at the committee hearing that some characters he deemed questionable reached out to him.
"Are we just jumping on the bandwagon with the roll 'em and smoke 'em attitude that's going on out west?" Simon asked.
Mills assured him his bill would not open to the door to recreational use. He has often noted Louisiana's proposed dispensary system would be the most tightly regulated medical marijuana system in the country.
"It's a safe, secure and responsible way to dispense medical marijuana to those who are suffering and need it," Moreno said Thursday.
Some lawmakers were undeterred in their insistence that medical marijuana was a step toward recreational legalization. Medical marijuana dispensaries could be seen as a way to get the infrastructure in place to sell recreational marijuana -- if or when it becomes legalized. For example, dispensary sites in other states that formerly only distributed medical marijuana prior to the legalization of recreational marijuana now sell both versions, post-legalization.
"Please don't send a message to the rest the country that Louisiana is on its way to legalizing recreational marijuana," said state Rep. Sherman Mack, R-Livingston, a lawyer. "Because with this bill, that's what you're doing."
Rep. Terry Landry, D-New Iberia, the former head of the Louisiana State Police, countered Mack's claims about the dangers of marijuana as an addictive gateway drug by saying the FDA-approved drugs "in your mother's medicine cabinet" lead to more dangerous drug use, like heroin addiction.
"This is not about recreational (marijuana)," Landry said. "This is about human suffering."
On the floor, more lawmakers spoke in favor of the bill than against it. Many of those who expressed concerns had them addressed through answers or amendments.
Medical marijuana advocates who pushed for the bill have cited a problem with language in the current version they say could prevent patients from accessing the drug. Because the marijuana is a schedule I narcotic and is not approved by the Federal Drug Administration, doctors in other states where medical marijuana is legal write their patients "recommendations" for medical marijuana, not "prescriptions."
The legal distinction allows a doctor to recommend medical marijuana to patients and pharmacists to fulfill it without threatening the doctor's federal Drug Enforcement Administration certification. The House committee made the fix last week, but it was undone on the floor, with Moreno explaining that the pharmacy board indicated the word "prescription" would not be a problem.
Mills said he plans to follow through with the regulating agencies to make sure the law is actually implemented, if it passes. He aims to prevent another quarter-century loophole for patients who can't get their hands on medical marijuana, even though it's technically already legal. "To me, when you pass legislation, you've got to make sure it's a practicality."
With an estimated two years before the intent of the proposed law would come to fruition, plus some lingering issues that might require action during next's year legislative session, patients waiting on the drug will remain, at least for a while, in limbo.
News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Louisiana medical marijuana bill clears both chambers; Jindal expected to sign | NOLA.com
Author: Emily Lane
Contact: elane@nola.com
Photo Credit: Emily Lane
Website: New Orleans, LA Local News, Breaking News, Sports & Weather - NOLA.com
If the bill becomes law, Louisiana will become the 24th state, plus Washington, D.C., where patients have legal access to medical marijuana. The state will also become the first in the Southeast to have a legal medical marijuana dispensary system.
Gov. Bobby Jindal told reporters last month that he would sign he bill, sponsored by Sen. Fred Mills, R-New Iberia, if it gets to his desk. The last step before it reaches Jindal's office is a vote from the Senate to approve amendments tacked on the House side. That body endorsed an earlier version of the bill on May 4, by a vote of 22-13.
While the Legislature legalized marijuana for medical purposes 1978, and then again in 1991, there's no mechanism in current law that allows for the legal dispensing of the drug. The Department of Health and Hospitals was ordered to write rules for dispensing it nearly a quarter century ago, but the rules never adequately implemented the intent of the legislation. Doctors can legally prescribe it, patients can legally use it, but patients can't access it in the state legally. In short, the system lacks a middleman. The legislation (SB 143) gives authority to three state boards to set rules regulating a tightly constrained system.
State Rep. Helena Moreno, D-New Orleans, who presented the bill for Mills on the House floor Thursday, fielded questions for more than hour. Mills sat behind her, talking off to the side with House members who walked up to him during the debate to air their individual concerns.
Some lawmakers, including Rep. Mike Huval, R-Breaux Bridge, spoke from the lectern about loved ones who could have benefitted from medical marijuana. Huval's brother, David, died of cancer last month, he said. The lawmaker said he wished his brother had medical marijuana to help him through chemotherapy: "It kept him alive, but God he suffered."
Much of Thursday's floor debate, though, was centered on who would get the contract to grow the marijuana, the terms of the contract and whether or not the bill was just a segue to legalize marijuana for recreational use.
"I want to remind you all what this is all about," said Moreno during her closing statement on the bill. "This is about helping people who are literally begging us, begging us, to help them finally stop their suffering."
While the vote was taken, as some lawmakers watching the voting board saw that a clear majority of representatives' names lit up in green, rather than red, applause broke out from the floor.
Here's How The System Would Work
Those with a prescription could obtain the drug in non-smokable form -- like oils or a pill -- at one of 10 dispensaries scattered across the state. The bill authorizes one cultivation site.
The cultivation site was originally supposed to have been selected through a public bid process. But an amendment added on the House floor Thursday gives first priority to the LSU and Southern University Ag Centers to host the site, if the centers want the job.
The bill restricts the use of medical marijuana to patients suffering from glaucoma, spastic quadriplegia and for those undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer. However, the legislation requests that the Louisiana Board of Medical Examiners submit recommendations of other qualifying conditions or diseases -- like epilepsy or AIDS -- that should be added to the list. The deadline for those recommendations is 60 days before the next legislative session.
The Louisiana Board of Medical Examiners would set rules about prescriptions, Louisiana Board of Pharmacy would set rules about dispensaries; and the Louisiana Department of Agriculture would set rules for a single cultivation site.
Rep. Patrick Connick, R-Marrero, tacked on the amendment giving the LSU and Southern Ag centers the cultivation contract after a number of lawmakers expressed uneasiness over the idea of a private entity landing a huge state contract to grow marijuana -- possibly a very profitable venture. The apparent potential for shady dealings prompted Rep. Kirk Talbot, R-River Ridge, to bring up the riverboat casino license scandals of the 1990s. "That was a nightmare," he said.
Moreover, Connick posed, "If someone's going to make a profit from this, why not the state?"
Should the Ag centers refuse the cultivation site contract, an amendment added by Moreno on the House floor lists specific processes for the selection of the site and spells out provisions that must be included in the contract.
Frankie Gould, the director of communications and public relations for the LSU AgCenter, said Thursday it was too soon for the center to respond as to whether or not they're willing or able to host the production site. Until the bill becomes law, if it does, and the three agencies promulgate the rules, "it's a little bit premature," she said.
The 10 dispensary sites located in different parts of the state would be established at existing pharmacies, where medical marijuana will be distributed to patients with a prescription from their doctor.
The bill also lets the state track sales, in a similar manner to pseudoephedrine, in order to detect "doctor shopping."
A sunset clause will force the Legislature in five years to readopt the law. The five-year expiration is intended to give lawmakers the opportunity to explore the impact of legal access to medial marijuana and possibly re-evaluate the system.
By the time the rules are promulgated, a cultivation site selected, the product grown and readied for distribution, Mills estimated it would be about two years -- 24 months, he said -- before the first patient can actually access medical marijuana. "It's going to take a while for the product to ramp up," he said.
How It Got Pushed Through The Legislature
Mills, a pharmacist by occupation, became aware of structural holes in the state's medical marijuana law when he was the director of the state pharmacy board in the late 1990s. Patients and doctors asked him how to access it, and he learned it was legal but not accessible.
When other states started legalizing medical marijuana in recent years, he received more calls, this time as a legislator.
Mills sponsored similar medical marijuana legislation in 2014, but it was killed by a large margin early in the process, in the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare. The same committee this year endorsed the legislation without an objection from any member.
He attributed the shift of support this year to the fact that the Louisiana Sheriffs' Association worked with him to get the bill into a posture in which they felt comfortable removing their opposition. Last year, the group opposed the bill "vehemently," according to the words of Louisiana Sheriffs' Association Executive Director Mike Ranatza. The sheriffs group did not officially support the legislation; their official stance was neutral. But Ranatza sat at Mills side -- a symbolic show of support -- during hearings on the bill, explaining that the system he proposed was crafted under compromise with his organization.
Ranatza also said the wishes of colleague's daughter, who suffered from pancreatic cancer, inspired him to consider removing opposition that would have effectively shielded the bill from passing. Alison Neustrom, the 42-year-old daughter of Lafayette Parish Sheriff Michael Neustrom, told Ranatza after last year's hearing that she wished the sheriffs organization could find a way not to oppose the legal access to medical marijuana for patients like her. She died a few months later, on Sept. 10, 2014.
Mills said the most difficult task in winning support from his colleagues in the Legislature has been dispelling the notion that medical marijuana is a pathway to full-on legalization.
Even though he is not pushing recreational marijuana legalization, groups who clearly support that agenda have lobbied other lawmakers on behalf of the medical marijuana bill -- scaring some legislators off. House Health and Welfare Committee chairman Scott Simon, R-Abita Springs, mentioned at the committee hearing that some characters he deemed questionable reached out to him.
"Are we just jumping on the bandwagon with the roll 'em and smoke 'em attitude that's going on out west?" Simon asked.
Mills assured him his bill would not open to the door to recreational use. He has often noted Louisiana's proposed dispensary system would be the most tightly regulated medical marijuana system in the country.
"It's a safe, secure and responsible way to dispense medical marijuana to those who are suffering and need it," Moreno said Thursday.
Some lawmakers were undeterred in their insistence that medical marijuana was a step toward recreational legalization. Medical marijuana dispensaries could be seen as a way to get the infrastructure in place to sell recreational marijuana -- if or when it becomes legalized. For example, dispensary sites in other states that formerly only distributed medical marijuana prior to the legalization of recreational marijuana now sell both versions, post-legalization.
"Please don't send a message to the rest the country that Louisiana is on its way to legalizing recreational marijuana," said state Rep. Sherman Mack, R-Livingston, a lawyer. "Because with this bill, that's what you're doing."
Rep. Terry Landry, D-New Iberia, the former head of the Louisiana State Police, countered Mack's claims about the dangers of marijuana as an addictive gateway drug by saying the FDA-approved drugs "in your mother's medicine cabinet" lead to more dangerous drug use, like heroin addiction.
"This is not about recreational (marijuana)," Landry said. "This is about human suffering."
On the floor, more lawmakers spoke in favor of the bill than against it. Many of those who expressed concerns had them addressed through answers or amendments.
Medical marijuana advocates who pushed for the bill have cited a problem with language in the current version they say could prevent patients from accessing the drug. Because the marijuana is a schedule I narcotic and is not approved by the Federal Drug Administration, doctors in other states where medical marijuana is legal write their patients "recommendations" for medical marijuana, not "prescriptions."
The legal distinction allows a doctor to recommend medical marijuana to patients and pharmacists to fulfill it without threatening the doctor's federal Drug Enforcement Administration certification. The House committee made the fix last week, but it was undone on the floor, with Moreno explaining that the pharmacy board indicated the word "prescription" would not be a problem.
Mills said he plans to follow through with the regulating agencies to make sure the law is actually implemented, if it passes. He aims to prevent another quarter-century loophole for patients who can't get their hands on medical marijuana, even though it's technically already legal. "To me, when you pass legislation, you've got to make sure it's a practicality."
With an estimated two years before the intent of the proposed law would come to fruition, plus some lingering issues that might require action during next's year legislative session, patients waiting on the drug will remain, at least for a while, in limbo.
News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Louisiana medical marijuana bill clears both chambers; Jindal expected to sign | NOLA.com
Author: Emily Lane
Contact: elane@nola.com
Photo Credit: Emily Lane
Website: New Orleans, LA Local News, Breaking News, Sports & Weather - NOLA.com
