[5] On June 30, 2015, Governor Bobby Jindal signed SB 143, which significantly reduced penalties for possession of cannabis.
[6] On June 15, 2021, Governor John Bel Edwards signed HB 652 which decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana statewide.
Under the bill, possession of less than 14 grams of cannabis is punishable by a $100 fine and no threat of jail time for the first and every subsequent offense.
After conducting the study, Lee and Ruiz found that people of color had a much higher bail amount than white individuals who were arrested for the same crime.
[11] On June 30, 2015, Governor Bobby Jindal signed HB 149, which sets up a framework for dispensing marijuana for medical purposes.
[13] In August 2020, HB 819, signed by Governor John Bel Edwards, greatly expanded access to medical cannabis.
[20] The hypothesis of this study is that if people are recreationally smoking marijuana during the pandemic, they will start to attain psychosocial tendencies and lose the ability to function as normal.
[citation needed] In June 2023, several bills passed the Louisiana Legislature to "reform and update" medical cannabis legislation.
[21] The Governor of Louisiana however signed a bill into law that implements the “expungement” of certain cannabis criminal records of individuals - based under certain conditions and circumstances (i.e. up to 14g possession and being a first time offender).