Published: May 27, 2020
By: Kathleen Peppo, LSU Manship School News Service
The Senate voted 28-6 Wednesday to approve a bill to make medical marijuana more widely available across the state.
The bill would lift regulations that require doctors to register with the state to recommend it and that limits its use in treating diseases.
Under the bill, any state-licensed physician could recommend medical marijuana for the treatment of debilitating health conditions. The Senate approved several amendments to the bill, which had already passed the House, so it will now go back to the House for final consideration.
Before the vote, Sen. Fred Mills, R-New Iberia, gave a personal anecdote about the legal use of marijuana making a positive impact on real Louisianans.
He said that a few months ago, he ran into a daughter of former Gov. Kathleen Blanco in a small grocery store in Lafayette. “She was crying and she told me that day was the first day that they could legally access medical marijuana,” he said. “They thought that they were going to have to say goodbye to mom, but with her ability to use med marijuana, she was walking, playing cards, eating.” Blanco later died from cancer.
Meanwhile, the Senate Health and Welfare Committee voted 5-1 Wednesday to advance two other bills specifying other diseases suitable for medical marijuana treatments.
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