Drug law reform organizations SMPL and the Marijuana Policy Project partnered to draft HB 1112 which was introduced today by Representative Ted James.  This is the first comprehensive “medical marijuana” or therapeutic Cannabis bill since retired Representative Dalton Honore and Senator Fred Mills introduced their bills (HB 720 and SB 541 respectively) in the 2014 legislative session.   There was no therapeutic Cannabis bill before the La. legislature in 2013 and prior to that, you’d have to look back 22 years to the 1991 effort.  By comprehensive, we mean that this bill provides Cannabis in various forms as medicine delivered through protected care givers or dispensaries to patients who’s doctors have said that their conditions including: cancer, glaucoma, spasticity, quadriplegia, positive status for human immunodeficiency virus, acquired immune deficiency syndrome, the need to promote weight gain in HIV/AIDS wasting syndromes, seizures, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS, crohn’s disease, multiple sclerosis or MS, ulcerative colitis and intractable pain might respond well to treatment with Cannabis.  The summary of the bill is in the “Digest” on the final two pages of the bill which you can read here:

There is certainly a long road ahead of us on this bill and it’s always an uphill battle convincing legislators that this not only makes good sense from a social and fiscal standpoint, but also that the overwhelming majority of voters want it and in a functioning democracy, should get what they want from their public officials.  This is why we need your help.  We really need your support and if some of you offer some of it, we are very likely to prevail.  This is the part where you join our organization and you begin calling your representatives and senators to help persuade them.  The easiest way to start is by thanking Representative James.  Here’s the text of the bill: http://www.legis.la.gov/legis/ViewDocument.aspx?d=991577

And this is where the bill is likely to be considered first…so it’s imperative to contact these legislators and tell them that you expect (finally after 38 years – La. was one of first four states nationwide in 1978) a fully functioning therapeutic Cannabis system that finally delivers medicine to citizens in need: http://house.louisiana.gov/H_Cmtes/HealthAndWelfare.aspx

Join us.  Tune in.  Act up.  Make it happen!  Nobody else is going to do it for you…