Louisiana lawmakers on Tuesday killed a invoice to legalize adult-use hashish within the state, the Lafayette Daily Advertiser studies. The Home Prison Justice Committee voted down the proposal 9-4.
The measure was opposed by the state’s sheriffs, district attorneys, and police chiefs over public security considerations and the affect of legalization on kids.
Ken Caldwell of the Marijuana Coverage Undertaking estimated that the state helps a bootleg hashish market of a minimum of $1 billion.
Throughout testimony, state Rep. Candace Newell (R) argued that the 1937 federal ban on hashish was enacted because of “racism, bigotry and fear-mongering” after a nationwide propaganda marketing campaign that stoked fears of Black musicians “smoking reefers” and “raping white girls.”
“We must always not nonetheless be criminalizing folks when in different states their economic system is flourishing.” — Newell by way of the Each day Advertiser
Throughout his testimony, Will Corridor of the Louisiana Baptist Workplace of Public Coverage, stated “It’s not value mortgaging the way forward for our youth to create tax income.”
Louisiana does enable medical hashish use and final yr lawmakers downgraded possession of as much as 14 grams of hashish for private use to a misdemeanor punishable by a $100 superb and no jail time.
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