Louisiana\u2019s path to a medical marijuana program has been a tortuous and frustrating one. State lawmakers passed a law instating a limited program in 2015, but cannabis products did not begin to reach patients at the nine approved pharmacies until August of last year. There are still fewer than 4,500 patients registered to access cannabis products under the law.<\/p>\n
After what has been an\u00a0agonizing delay<\/a>\u00a0for many patients, Louisiana\u2019s legislature has finally taken moves to expand the program.\u00a0<\/p>\n The program will still allow only extracts, tinctures and other such preparations \u2014 not actual herbaceous cannabis, either smoked or vaped. And only two \u201cagricultural centers\u201d are permitted to cultivate and process \u2014 one at\u00a0Louisiana State University<\/a>\u00a0and one at\u00a0Southern University<\/a>, both in Baton Rouge and the latter a historically Black university. LSU, partnering with the private\u00a0Wellcana Group<\/a>, finally produced enough cannabis to begin supplying the approved pharmacies a year ago,\u00a0Associated Press<\/a>\u00a0notes.\u00a0The Advocate<\/a>, the state\u2019s biggest newspaper, reported the happy news that Southern University, partnering with\u00a0Ilera Holistic Healthcare<\/a>, finally shipped out its first tinctures and other products last month.<\/p>\n And now, under a\u00a0trio of new laws that were passed in June and went into effect Aug. 1, the ability of patients to access these products will be expanded. At last, the program seems poised for growth.<\/p>\n The most significant of the new measures, House Bill 819, expands the discretion of physicians to recommend cannabis. Rather than having to conform to the list of conditions named in the 2015 law, doctors can now approve cannabis products for \u201cany condition\u201d that they consider \u201cdebilitating to an individual patient,\u201d providing that the condition is one the doctor \u201cis qualified through his [or her] medical education and training to treat.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The 2015 law, known as\u00a0Therapeutic Marijuana A<\/a>, lists the standard conditions, including HIV\/AIDS, cancer, glaucoma, post-traumatic stress disorder, Parkinson\u2019s disease, and epilepsy and other seizure disorders.<\/p>\n According to the national advocacy group\u00a0NORML<\/a>,\u00a0Louisiana joins a handful of other states \u2014 including California, Virginia and Maine \u2014 that have enacted similar measures giving physicians the ability to recommend cannabis preparations to any patient they believe may benefit from them.\u00a0<\/p>\n When Gov. John Bel Edwards signed the bill in June, NORML hailed it as meaningful progress.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis is common sense legislation that provides physicians, not lawmakers, the ability and discretion to decide what treatment options are best for their patients,\u201d NORML deputy director Paul Armentano said in a\u00a0statement<\/a>. Continuuin, he said, \u201cJust as doctors are entrusted to make decisions with regard to the supervised use of opioids and other medicines \u2014 many of which pose far greater risks to patients than cannabis \u2014 the law should provide doctors with similar flexibility when it comes to recommending cannabis therapy to a bona fide patient.\u201d<\/p>\n Another of the new measures to take effect addresses the question of\u00a0cannabis use in hospitals<\/a> and other healthcare facilities. HB 418 provides immunity from prosecution to \u201cany facility that is licensed by the Louisiana Department of Health that has patients in its care using medical marijuana.\u201d HB 211 similarly provides immunity for banks and other financial institutions that provide services to state-licensed cannabis businesses.\u00a0<\/p>\n As an\u00a0AP account<\/a>\u00a0observes, these three bills were part of a modest wave of progressive legislation passed by Louisiana lawmakers this year. Other measures limit the use of solitary confinement on pregnant prisoners and increase the ways those sent to prison as juveniles can seek parole.\u00a0<\/p>\n Local activists feel that progress is long overdue in the Pelican State. In 2016, a \u201cJustSouth<\/a>\u201d index produced by the\u00a0Jesuit Social Research Institute<\/a>\u00a0at Loyola University sought to measure social justice across the Southern states. It ranked Louisiana dead last on measures of poverty, racial disparity and exclusion. The Research Institute\u2019s Jeanie Donovan called it a \u201ca grim picture\u201d in comments to\u00a0NOLA.com<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Low-income families, immigrants and workers of color are worse off in Louisiana than anywhere else in the United States, the report found. The average low-income household in Louisiana earned only $11,156 in 2014. The Research Institute calculated that a two-person family needs to earn \u201c$45,840 a year to afford basic necessities,\u201d Donovan said.<\/p>\n These conditions reflect the region\u2019s history of \u201cslavery, Jim Crow segregation and continuing inequality,\u201d added the Rev. Fred Kammer, director of the Research Institute.\u00a0<\/p>\n The other Gulf states ranked almost as poorly. Alabama placed 48th, Texas 49th and Mississippi 50th. Florida had the highest ranking in the region, at 41st place.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hardly coincidentally, Louisiana has some of the\u00a0harshest marijuana laws<\/a> in the nation.<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>, does your state have medical cannabis?<\/p>\n The post Louisiana Medical Marijuana Program Expands<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Louisiana\u2019s path to a medical marijuana program has been a tortuous and frustrating one. State lawmakers passed a law instating a limited program in 2015, but cannabis products did not begin to reach patients at the nine approved pharmacies until August of last year. There are still fewer than 4,500Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,1986,53,139,146,14186],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44009"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44009"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44010,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44009\/revisions\/44010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}A Trio of New Bills\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Slowly Moving Towards Social Justice\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: Louisiana Medical Marijuana Program Expands<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"