Louisiana House Panel OKs Medical Marijuana Stores

After intense questioning, a Louisiana House committee Wednesday approved creating a license to sell marijuana.

House Health and Welfare Committee Chairman Frank Hoffmann, R-West Monroe, started the hearing by saying the agenda was so light members could expect an early lunch. At the end of 40 minutes of debate, he quipped: “Well, that took little longer than we thought.”

Democratic Rep. H. Bernard LeBas, a pharmacist from Ville Platte, said the unexpectedly prolonged questioning came about because marijuana and its legal use is controversial.

But this is not about people smoking joints; rather, it’s about setting up the process so that patients, with a doctor’s prescription, can obtain pharmaceuticals made from marijuana derivatives — the way other medicines are extracted from plants, he said.

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