“Yes, You May Not Not Have Any Legal Pot Suggested And We Certainly Suggest You Don’t”

The way Louisiana has tippy toed around the medical marijuana issue reminds one of a speak easy doorman telling the crowd flowing past 'Im not saying St. Cooter Catholic Church got a BAR, CRAPS TABLE, and BLACK JACK in the basement.....I'm saying you'll be surprised by how good at dice the NUNS ARE!' Except the legislatures version is 'We're not saying you can't have medical marijuana in this state, we're just saying we encourage physicians and their patients to know that is medical pot IS legal, and no, you cant have any."   They just recently cleared the way for doctors to 'suggest' their patients look into medical marijuana, since 'prescriptions' cannot be written for Federally Controlled Schedule ! Substances by any doc who wants to stay in business. The LSU Ag center made it clear that they wouldn't even consider growing our states medical pot patch until everyone knew who could get it, how many possible patients were there, and what per cent  of the profit would the grower get back? The fear that LSU would invest the $16 million dollars it will take to realize a state of the art facility dedicated to the health and happiness of our meds marijuana, then lose everything when the legislature changed its mind at the last minute about allowing it, or snuck in a much larger portion of the profit for themselves, both possibilities for sure.

Now, the second hurtle in this ongoing comedy is: Who can it be 'suggested' to?  Currently, not many people at all are considered to be of any potential benefit from pot.  Only those suffering from spastic quadroplegia, chemotherapy sickness or glaucoma may use cannabis oil. The bill would add to that list all cancer, HIV, aids, seizures, epilepsy, Crohns, multiple sclerosis, and other painful muscle spasm disorders. And that makes the good folk at the Louisiana Baptist Convention speak up about the lack of research and empiracle evidence that marijuana is beneficial at all, and that going on the testimony of those it has helped is too uncertain until more is known.  Excuse me? Baptists? Data? Controlled experiments?  Scoffing at the iffy 'faith' of those its helped and demanding results? THAT had to be hard to say with a straight face.....

And now we all grab our popcorn and settle in as the one side begins dire warnings of heroin being passed out at schools if we allow this, while the other simply answers every question as to the effect on our state's budget with 'A gabillion dollars, give or take a bazillion or two.' Tune in next week for another gripping episode of "Yes, As Long As You Dont Want Any, You Can Have Some"