Louisiana's House of Representatives passed HB 568, sponsored by Rep. Gabe Firment (R), in a 59-34 vote, threatening up to one year in jail for anyone who smokes, vapes, or otherwise uses a controlled substance on school property, within 2,000 feet of such property, or on a school bus. The bill now moves to the Senate.
The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) said the bill carries “incredibly draconian penalties” that threaten to reverse recent cannabis reform in Louisiana. In 2021, then-Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) signed a bill decriminalizing marijuana by removing the threat of jail time for possessing up to 14 grams.
Kevin Caldwell, MPP’s Southeast legislative manager, said in an action alert: “HB 568 would make cannabis use a felony in huge swaths of urban and suburban areas. Two thousand feet is a little over ⅓ of a mile.” The bill also carries fines up to $1,000. “This is an attempt to bring back the draconian penalties that Louisiana was infamous for in decades past. This bill seeks to undo years of hard work by advocates for ending jail time for minor cannabis offenses,” he said. “Under this legislation, a student could be incarcerated for a year for consuming in a college dorm room.”
Separately, the Louisiana Senate passed a bill to let patients with terminal and irreversible conditions use medical marijuana in hospitals and approved legislation to create a psychedelic-assisted therapy pilot program, using opioid settlement dollars to fund clinical trials for psilocybin and ibogaine treatments.
Rep. Candace Newell (D) introduced a bill to create an adult-use marijuana legalization pilot program — the “Adult-Use Cannabis Pilot Program Regulation and Enforcement Act” — to assess whether the reform should be permanently codified. Newell’s similar measure from last session failed to advance, as did a proposal that would have established a tax system to prepare for eventual cannabis legalization.
