LA Marijuana Dispensary Guide

Way, way back in 1978 — yes, ‘78 — Louisiana introduced the Marijuana Prescription Review Board. The bill was developed with the intention of allowing marijuana access to patients undergoing chemotherapy or suffering from glaucoma. There was a problem. The measure needed the approval of the Department of Health and Human Services in order to provide distribution logistics and product. As a result, the initiative was killed over a technicality. Marijuana is federally illegal. Moreover, physicians aren’t able to “prescribe” any drug that is not FDA approved.

More than a decade later, Louisiana attempted to amend the 1978 initiative to legalize medicinal marijuana. This time, the bill included spastic quadriplegia as a qualifying condition, in addition to chemo and glaucoma. In 1994, after much deliberation the HHS finally allowed doctors to evaluate and prescribe medical marijuana to qualifying patients. But there was another problem. Unfortunately, medical marijuana doctors in Louisiana had no way to procure or distribute the medicine to their patients.

In 2015, with the passage of the Alison Neustrom Act, also known as Act 261, medical marijuana was legalized in Louisiana. The wording of the Act was constrictive. Physicians could only recommend medical marijuana – they couldn’t technically “prescribe” it, as it was still illegal under its Schedule I Controlled Substance categorization. And they still had no way to procure it.

Three decades later, on August 6, 2019, the state of Louisiana finally allowed the sale and use of medical marijuana. Medical cannabis can now be legally sold and purchased by registered patients at one of the nine approved pharmacies in the state. At present, one facility may legally operate within each of the state’s nine health regions.

The legislation guidelines were designed to protect banks and credit unions providing service to the cannabis industry. It also protects the doctors and medical facilities caring for medical marijuana patients.