Medical marijuana posts a narrow win

A bill permitting the use of prescribed marijuana for specified maladies got narrow approval by the House Health & Welfare Committee, but across the rotunda a Senate committee disapproved of a bill that would allow universities to grow hemp because it is distantly related to marijuana.  
 
Sen. Fred Mills, R-Lafayette, authored Senate Bill 271 which expands medical marijuana to people with cancer, seizure disorders, epilepsy, Crohn's disease and a multitude of other syndromes.  Following a 8-6 vote in the House committee, the bill now goes to the House where it is expected to meet raucous debate. 
 
The Senate passed the medical marijuana measure 21-16 two weeks ago.
 
Mills stressed that only pharmacies can dispense the prescription marijuana and that the Louisiana Board of Pharmacy would create the rules and regulations for dispensing the narcotic. 
 
“This is a safer drug than others on the market, and we haven’t been able to find other drugs to help people for certain diseases,” argued Rep. Bernard LeBas, D-Ville Platte.
 
In an emotional bout of testimony, Katie Corkern testified about her son who suffers from constant seizures and how the medicine he currently is taking is ruining her child’s vision.
Corkern described sitting in the Senate chamber as a lawmaker argued in opposition of the bill when her son Connor began seizing up.
 
“Tears streamed down my eyes as Connor seized because the medicine he isn’t stopping (seizures), and legislators argued against his last hope.”
 
Mike Stone, sheriff of Lincoln Parish and president of the Louisiana Sheriff’s Association, said his association originally supported the legislation, but pulled its support following certain amendments that added illnesses they believed should not be treated with marijuana. 
 
Stone also cited a lack of research and approval by the Federal Drug Administration. He and other opponents also cited multiple research studies which they said came to the conclusion there is no “credible” therapeutic value to medicinal marijuana in oil, spray, or injection. 
 
One opponent, Stephanie Haynes, of the Greater New Orleans Drug Reduction Coalition, testified marijuana primes the brain for heroin and passing the bill would add 2,000 new 17- and18-year-old drug addicts in Louisiana. 
 
The FDA has approved medical marijuana use only in Marinol and Cesamet pills. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Senate Agriculture Committee shot down a measure allowing universities to grow and study hemp Tuesday after debate over the plant’s relation to marijuana and potential problems with law enforcement monitoring the growing. 
 
Rep. Jack Montoucet, D-Crowley, filed the measure to create a state framework for the study and grow a plant that is “a low input, low impact and high yield crop.” 
 
Committee members questioned the plant’s similarity to marijuana.  Sen. Barrow Peacock, R-Shreveport, pointing out that law enforcement may not be able to tell the difference between the two plants. 
 
“You can smoke all the hemp you want and you will not get a high,” Montoucet insisted. 
 
He noted that hemp, commonly used in biofuel and clothing, has a 0.3 THC content – the active ingredient in marijuana – while marijuana has from 5 to 20 percent THC content.  But committee said there would be problems with law enforcement overseeing the programs, and the logistics of colleges and universities growing hemp. 
 
“We are opening Pandora’s box on something that quite candidly is not the role of … higher education,” said Sen. Gerald Long, R-Winnfield. 
 
Sen. Neil Riser, R-Columbia, cast the lone “yes” vote for the bill.