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The governor of Louisiana has signed a bill to provide workplace protections for most state employees who are registered medical marijuana patients.<\/p>\n
The legislation from Rep. Mandie Landry (D) is one of roughly a dozen cannabis measures that Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) has signed in recent days, but it\u2019s one that advocates have been especially passionate about<\/a>.<\/p>\n It stipulates that no state employer \u201cshall subject an employee or prospective employee to negative employment consequences\u201d just because they test positive for THC as long as they\u2019re a registered medical cannabis patient who received a marijuana recommendation from a licensed physician.<\/p>\n There are exceptions to the protections, however. Employers could still penalize workers who are found to be intoxicated from marijuana on the job, for example.<\/p>\n Further, workers could still face adverse employment actions for testing positive for marijuana metabolites if their jobs require them to operate a vehicle or if they work in any of the following professions: \u201cemergency medical services, law enforcement, public safety officials, any state employee of the horse racing commission, and firefighter services.\u201d<\/p>\n The bill<\/a> cleared the House and Senate in recent weeks with strong margins before being transmitted to the governor\u2019s desk.<\/p>\n Landry told Marijuana Moment in a phone interview on Thursday that providing medical cannabis workplace protections for state employees is just one of the first steps toward broader reform. The sponsor supports adult-use legalization, but she recognizes that incremental reforms may be the most practical way forward in the short-term.<\/p>\n And that includes potentially extending the new protections for state employees to cover workers in the private sector as well.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we\u2019ll be able to come up\u2014at least with industries or different areas of employment\u2014that we can expand it pretty easily,\u201d Landry said. \u201cWe\u2019ll be able to come up with ideas and legislation in terms of expanding these protections statewide.\u201d<\/p>\n Part of the challenge, the legislator said, is the current lack of accurate testing for active impairment from marijuana. Without that, it will likely be more challenging to convince more conservative members to get on board with expanding the workplace protections for cannabis patients.<\/p>\n \u2014 \u201cState employees deserve the same access to medical cannabis that other residents of Louisiana have,\u201d Kevin Caldwell, Southeast legislative manager of the Marijuana Policy Project, told Marijuana Moment. \u201cThey suffer from the same debilitating conditions and have the same concerns about side effects that certain pharmaceuticals have, including the risks associated with opiates.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis legislation only affects state employees, but we hope to see progression for all workers in the coming sessions including first responders,\u201d he said. \u201cRep. Mandie Landry was tenacious in her leadership to get this vital piece of legislation through the process to the governor\u2019s desk.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the governor announced last week that he signed a wide range of other cannabis proposals<\/a>, including one key measure that would expand the number of medical dispensaries that can operate in the state and another to prevent police from searching people\u2019s homes over the smell of cannabis.<\/p>\n While advocates would like to see the momentum over the past few years continue and eventually lead to an adult-use legalization system in the state, that has yet to come to fruition.<\/p>\n Nearly six in ten Louisiana voters support legalizing marijuana,\u00a0according to a poll from the University of New Orleans<\/a>\u00a0that was released in April.<\/p>\n While legalization has yet to be enacted in the Pelican State, Edwards did\u00a0sign a bill last year to decriminalize possession<\/a>\u00a0of up to 14 grams of cannabis by making it punishable by a $100 fine without jail time. That\u00a0policy went into effect last August<\/a>.<\/p>\n Rep. Larry Bagley (R) filed a bill this session to revise the state\u2019s cannabis decriminalization law to make it so people under 18 could face incarceration over low-level possession<\/a>\u00a0that advanced, but wasn\u2019t enacted.<\/p>\n Edwards\u00a0also signed a bill last year<\/a>\u00a0to allow patients in the state\u2019s medical cannabis program legally to smoke whole-plant marijuana flower.<\/p>\n The governor also previously said that he does think that\u00a0Louisiana will inevitably legalize cannabis for adult use<\/a>\u00a0at some point, but he doesn\u2019t believe it will happen before his term expires in 2024.<\/p>\n An effort in the legislature to pass a bill to legalize recreational cannabis\u00a0stalled in the House last session<\/a>\u00a0after the chamber failed to pass a complementary measure on taxing adult-use marijuana.<\/p>\n Last year, Edwards also said that\u00a0he had \u201cgreat interest\u201d in the legalization proposal<\/a>, and he pledged to take a serious look at its various provisions.<\/p>\n In 2020, 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. The\u00a0governor signed that into law<\/a>.<\/p>\n A separate poll released last year similarly demonstrated\u00a0strong voter support for marijuana legalization<\/a>, even in conservative stronghold districts.<\/p>\n Two other previous polls\u2014including one personally commissioned by a top Republican lawmaker\u2014have found that\u00a0a majority of voters are in favor of legalizing cannabis<\/a>\u00a0for adult use.<\/p>\n Congressional Leaders Call For Psilocybin Policy Review, Hemp As A Plastic Alternative And Marijuana Product Research Access<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Louisiana Governor Signs Bill Providing Medical Marijuana Workplace Protections For State Employees<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The governor of Louisiana has signed a bill to provide workplace protections for most state employees who are registered medical marijuana patients. The legislation from Rep. Mandie Landry (D) is one of roughly a dozen cannabis measures that Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) has signed in recent days, but it\u2019sContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":55491,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55490"}],"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=55490"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55492,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55490\/revisions\/55492"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Louisiana Governor Signs Bill Providing Medical Marijuana Workplace Protections For State Employees<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"