Katie Corkern couldn’t stop smiling Thursday, confident that relief for her son’s uncontrollable seizures may finally be near.

Corkern, her son Connor and the rest of her family stood near Gov. John Bel Edwards as he signed a bill to kick-start and expand the Louisiana medical marijuana program, which has been slow to begin because of regulatory hurdles.

“I’m very excited for the future. And I’m very excited for all the people this medicine can help,” the mother and advocate said after the bill signing.

The governor said the program will have a dramatic effect on Louisiana’s families.

Louisiana is poised to officially become the 25th state to legalize medical marijuana. On May 16, the state senators approved the House's revisions to a bill that would officially allow patients to access marijuana for medicinal uses. The bill is now headed to the desk of Governor John Bel Edwards (D), who has said he would sign it and thereby make medical marijuana officially legal in Louisiana.

On April 17, Pennsylvania became the latest state to pass medical marijuana legislation, which will take effect this month. And recently Ohio’s House of Representatives has passed a plan to permit medical marijuana in the state.

Medical marijuana advocates won a significant victory Wednesday in their efforts to jumpstart Louisiana's medical marijuana program.

The House voted 62-31 to expand the program to cover more diseases and to make regulatory changes aimed at getting medicinal-grade pot into patients' hands more quickly.

A group that advocates for medical marijuana is ratcheting up pressure on Louisiana lawmakers by paying for billboards depicting sick children and their mothers who want the state to pass legislation that would allow access to the drug.

Sensible Marijuana Policy for Louisiana, a nonprofit group that was behind a medical marijuana bill filed by state Rep. Ted James, D-Baton Rouge, is planning a news conference Tuesday (May 10) to announce the billboards. Each ad will appear on digital billboards, one of them in Baton Rouge and the other in Shreveport.

Changing Louisiana's policies on medical marijuana legislation this session may hinge on the difference between prescribing the drug and recommending it as a way of getting it into the patients.

Early indications emerging from a medical marijuana bill debate Tuesday (April 12) were that the Louisiana Sheriff's Association and the Louisiana District Attorneys Association are poised to oppose bills that change the word "prescription" to "recommendation." The switch is aimed at protecting doctors, who risk losing their Drug Enforcement Agency license for prescribing a Schedule I drug.

Mardi Gras will never be the same again.

Under current law in New Orleans, if you've never been busted with pot before, police can use their discretion on whether or not to take you to jail or issue a summons.

But, if you're a repeat offender it's handcuffs and lock up for you.

Beginning  June 21, all of this will change as the penalty for being caught with bud in the Big Easy has greatly diminished.

People who want to get into the medical marijuana business in Louisiana are going to need to pay a $5,000 application fee in addition to a $150 licensing fee if they want to become one of 10 marijuana pharmacists in the state. The $5,000 application fee will be non-refundable, and will only be applied to marijuana pharmacies, not regular drug stores.

Louisiana is in quite a predicament: It’s broke, really broke.