BATON ROUGE, LA | June 15, 2021—Tuesday, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards signed into law House Bill 652, significantly altering the state's marijuana laws and how possession of the substance is punished.
HB 652, by Rep. Cedric Glover, eliminates jail or prison time as a punishment for possession of 14 grams of marijuana or less. It also reduces the fine for that offense to a maximum of $100 or a court summons.
According to information released by the group Louisiana Progress - a grassroots political organization in Baton Rouge - HB 652 will make Louisiana the first state in the deep south, and only the second state in all of the south, to significantly reform its criminal laws regarding marijuana.
"In a period during our country’s history when consensus evades us on so many important issues, the Louisiana Legislature found common ground this year around the belief that the possession of small amounts of marijuana should no longer lead to either jail time or becoming a felon,” Glover said of the new law. “This consensus would not have been possible without the leadership of Reps. C. Denise Marcelle, Alan Seabaugh, Candace Newell, Richard Nelson, Sen. Jay Luneau, Louisiana Progress, all of my colleagues who voted in favor of HB652, and the legions of Louisiana citizens who reached out and encouraged them to do so. Going forward I hope that we can build upon the common ground we have found and move even closer to the more just and equitable Louisiana that we all deserve."
“This is a huge step forward in the movement to reform our criminal legal system,” Peter Robins-Brown, policy and advocacy director at Louisiana Progress, said. “No one, and no part of our society, benefits from criminalizing people for possessing small amounts of marijuana. The current system of punishment has had a particularly negative effect on younger, poorer, and Blacker and browner folks, who represent the groups most likely to be targeted for harsh punishments for marijuana possession.”
HB 652 will go into effect in Louisiana Aug. 1, 2021.
