Louisiana: Bill to jail cannabis consumers heads to Senate floor! 

Terrible news. The draconian bill to impose up to a year in jail for consuming cannabis within 2,000 feet of school property passed committee and is headed to the Senate floor! It already passed the House of Representatives and the governor is pushing hard for it.

This step back warrants an all-hands-on-deck response! If you live in Louisiana, ask your senator to reject this huge step backwards.

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. In addition to mandatory incarceration of up to a year, the bill includes a fine of up to $1,000. These incredibly draconian penalties for using cannabis products near any school property (or on a school bus) narrowly passed the Judiciary B Committee in a 3-2 vote yesterday. 

This is an attempt to bring back the draconian penalties that Louisiana was infamous for. This bill seeks to undo years of hard work by advocates for ending jail time for minor cannabis offenses. Under this legislation, a grandmother eating a gummy on her front porch or in her own living room could be incarcerated for up to a year.

We have worked tirelessly to reform Louisiana’s archaic cannabis laws for years. Louisianans, your voice is needed to make sure we stop this reckless attempt towards mass incarceration of cannabis consumers. We have seen that prohibition has never been equitably enforced in the Pelican State. 

Let’s move cannabis policy forward, not backward!