Should Medical Marijuana Be Expanded in Louisiana?

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A House Republican leader’s bid to expand Louisiana’s medical marijuana program and allow smokable cannabis has started to gain traction. Louisiana’s dispensaries sell medical marijuana in liquids, topical applications, inhalers and edible gummies. Republican Rep. Tanner Magee is proposing to authorize sales of raw, smokable marijuana for medical use. And he wants to apply state sales tax to those products if lawmakers authorize them. The House Ways and Means Committee advanced the tax proposal to the full House. Some lawmakers expressed concern about levying a tax on medicine, but they said the taxed, raw marijuana still would be cheaper than current medical marijuana products.