A bill has been filed for the upcoming legislative session that would allow for the sale of recreational marijuana, but only at a few locations.
New Orleans Representative Candace Newell’s legislation would allow for the sale of recreational marijuana by businesses that have a license to dispense medical marijuana, but the recreational weed must be sold at a separate location.
“Use the property they already own, licenses they already own, and see how recreational can work,” Newell said.
There are nine companies in Louisiana licensed to sell medical marijuana in the nine different regions of the state. So under Newell’s bill, these businesses would have the opportunity to sell recreational marijuana at a location separate from the medical marijuana pharmacy.
Weed is legal in 24 states, and Newell believes Louisiana should join that growing list and benefit from the tax revenue that can be gained from the sale of marijuana.
“Now that we have a lot of changes and reductions to the federal funding that we’re getting in our states, we can insulate ourselves from the negative impacts of that if we have the tax structure to sustain ourselves,” Newell explained.
Newell’s legislation will be debated in the regular session that is set to begin on Monday. She’s not optimistic her legislation will pass, but the legalization of recreational marijuana use needs to be debated.
“I think the conversation needs to be heard until the total overall opinion of it changes and until, finally, I can get 53 yeses,” Newell said.