Bill passes to reduce punishment for possession of marijuana paraphernalia

BATON ROUGE, La, (BRPROUD) – The Louisiana Legislature passed a bill that lessens the punishment for having some drug paraphernalia.

The expansion of medical marijuana products last year included cannabis flowers and decriminalized small amounts of marijuana. Now, there is a push to keep people from being arrested or fined for having things such as pipes in their possession. 

“It does not decriminalize cannabis paraphernalia but what it does do is it limits the damage the criminalization has. In other words it limits to $50 and it takes jail off the table,” said Kevin Caldwell of the Marijuana Policy Project.

Advocates said when possession of drug paraphernalia is put on someone’s record it doesn’t specify what it is. They believe this could be harmful when looking for jobs and housing. The main goal is to shield medical marijuana users from punishment for possessing the tools needed to ingest the medication.

The bill will be sent back to the house for concurrence of the amendments.