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The governors of Texas and Louisiana on Thursday separately indicated that they will sign marijuana reform bills that have recently been delivered to their desks.<\/p>\n
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) left no room for interpretation on how he would act on a medical cannabis expansion measure that the legislature sent him<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cVeterans could qualify for medical marijuana under new law,\u201d he tweeted. \u201cI will sign it.\u201d<\/p>\n Veterans could qualify for medical marijuana under new law.<\/p>\n I will sign it.https:\/\/t.co\/KkoC15Ur66<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) June 11, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) was less explicit, stating at a press briefing that he\u2019s \u201cinterested in signing the bill that would lessen the penalty for possessing small amounts of marijuana.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n The governor noted that some reporters \u201cmay be surprised to hear\u201d he\u2019s inclined to approve the cannabis decriminalization measure, referring to his longtime opposition to broad legalization. That said, other recent comments Edwards has separately made signaled that he may be increasingly open to even more comprehensive proposals to completely end marijuana prohibition if they are ever sent to his desk.<\/p>\n When it comes to the current decriminalization measure, he said he and his staff are \u201creviewing that one now.\u201d<\/p>\n Louisiana lawmakers also sent Edwards a separate bill last week to let patients in the state\u2019s medical cannabis program legally smoke whole-plant marijuana flower<\/a>. He didn\u2019t weigh in on that proposal at the press conference, but he\u2019s previously cited it as an example of the type of incremental reform he expected to advance.<\/p>\n In Texas, the marijuana measure that the governor says he will sign would add cancer and post-traumatic stress disorder to the list of conditions that qualify patients for medical cannabis. As passed in the House, it would have also included chronic pain as a qualifying condition, but that was removed by the Senate, and it was not re-added in a conference committee. Also, the legislation doubled the THC cap for marijuana products, increasing it from 0.5 percent to one percent. Originally the House-approved version increased the limit to five percent, but that was watered down in the Senate.<\/p>\n Abbott has not yet commented on a separate piece of drug policy reform legislation that the legislature also passed to require the state to study the therapeutic potential of psychedelics like psilocybin and MDMA. But for what it\u2019s worth, that measure is also aimed at supporting military veterans\u2019 health.<\/p>\n If all the bills are signed into law, it would represent a significant victory for advocates who have been working overtime in the conservative legislatures to get lawmakers on board. But in both states, there have also been defeats this session.<\/p>\n \u2014 Texas bills to reduce penalties for possessing cannabis concentrates, update the state\u2019s hemp program and broadly decriminalize marijuana advanced\u2014but they did not make it over the finish line by the session\u2019s end.<\/p>\n Partly because of those failures, a newly formed progressive coalition that\u2019s being led by two former congressional candidates said it plans to take cannabis and other issues directly to voters<\/a> by putting reform measures on local ballots across the state.<\/p>\n In Louisiana, there was an effort to pass a bill to legalize adult-use cannabis, but it stalled in the House<\/a> after the chamber failed to pass a complementary measure on taxing recreational marijuana. Edwards did say last month that he believes the reform\u00a0\u201cis going to happen in Louisiana eventually<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n In April, Edwards also said that he had \u201cgreat interest\u201d in the legalization proposal<\/a>, and he pledged to take a serious look at its various provisions.<\/p>\n Last year, the Louisiana legislature significantly expanded the state\u2019s medical marijuana program by passing a bill that allows physicians to recommend cannabis to patients for any debilitating condition that they deem fit instead of from the limited list of maladies that\u2019s used under current law.<\/p>\n Edwards\u00a0signed the measure in June 2020<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0it took effect weeks later<\/a>.<\/p>\n Abbott, for his part, did not sign separate legislation<\/a> to clarify that a positive marijuana test alone is not sufficient criteria for removing a child from their home. But he didn\u2019t veto it, either, and it was enacted without the his signature last month and takes effect on September 1, 2021.<\/p>\n Prohibition remains on the books in both traditionally conservative states\u2014but between legislative actions this session and both governors expressing some level of support for more modest reform, it can\u2019t be said that advocates haven\u2019t made progress.<\/p>\n California Uses Marijuana Tax Revenue To Fund Programs To Repair Drug War\u2019s Harms<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Kimberly Lawson.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Texas And Louisiana Governors Signal They\u2019ll Sign Marijuana Reform Bills On Their Desks<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The governors of Texas and Louisiana on Thursday separately indicated that they will sign marijuana reform bills that have recently been delivered to their desks. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) left no room for interpretation on how he would act on a medical cannabis expansion measure that the legislature sentContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":48211,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81,126],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48210"}],"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\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48210"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48212,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48210\/revisions\/48212"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Texas And Louisiana Governors Signal They\u2019ll Sign Marijuana Reform Bills On Their Desks<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"