The French Quarter in New Orleans could be buzzing with more than jazz and joie de vivre if one lawmaker gets his way.
(Photo courtesy of the Louisiana Office of Tourism)
The state that gives us Mardi Gras and muffulettas, crawfish and Cajun fiddle, can’t figure out MMJ. Medical marijuana has been legal in Louisiana since voters approved it in 1991, but the state hasn’t been able to pass regulations on it, which keeps it out of reach of most people who could use it. Louisiana dispensaries haven’t flourished and gotten the medicine to the people the way they did in Colorado after Senate Bill 109 and House Bill 1248 passed in 2010 to set up licensing and governance rules. The Colorado rules came a decade after state voters passed medical use with Amendment 20 in 2000, and two years before recreational pot was approved with Amendment 64 in 2012.
So this past week Baton Rouge’s Rep. Dalton Honore’ — that’s pronounced on-oh-RAY — came to Colorado to learn more, according to article posted Sunday afternoon on the website for The Town Talk newspaper in Alexandria, La.
“As we speak, I’m in Colorado now talking with legislators and policy advisers to see how the program is going in Colorado,” he on Thursday.
Rep. Dalton Honore’,
D-Baton Rouge, La.
Rep. Jonathan Singer,
D-Longmont
The Louisiana legislature begins its two-month session Monday, but Honoré, a Democrat, has pre-filed two pot bills. the state’s medical marijuana industry, and to vote next year on decriminalizing and taxing recreational marijuana.
“They’ve seen a huge tax increase,” Honore’ told Causey of Colorado. “I’m just trying to get some facts and figures together. The crime rate has gone down. Traffic fatalities have had a tremendous drop. The arrests of possession of marijuana has dropped from more than 30,000 annually to 2,000. Colorado has accumulated $60 million from the taxes.”
His to those compiled by the pro-pot Drug Policy Alliance, if you count just possession arrests. But all court cases — including cultivation and distribution — fell from 39,027 cases in 2011 to 2,036 last year. He hit us a bit low on tax revenue, though. Colorado from taxes and fees in 2014.
As a legislative trailblazer on the controversial issue of pot, Honore’ is the equivalent to Colorado’s Rep. Jonathan Singer, D-Longmont. to the legislative task. Honore’, 72, brought 32 years of law enforcement experience to the issue.
Honore’ ran an unsuccessful 2010 the agency for which Honore’ became the first African-American sheriff’s deputy in 1965, eventually rising to the rank of commander and later serving as a district attorney’s investigator.
“If I can get it to the people, it will pass with flying colors,” Honore of a potential 2016 decriminalization vote.
The article cited a Louisiana State University survey last year that indicated 79 percent of Louisianans supported some degree of marijuana legalization.
Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia . Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Alaska and the District of Columbia allow recreational use.
