Louisiana has always played hardball when it comes to punishing small-time drug offenders, but that could soon change. The state House's Administration of Criminal Justice Committee voted 10-4 Wednesday to approve a bill that would soften the state’s restrictions on people convicted of possessing small amounts of marijuana. The proposal is next expected to go to the House floor for debate, the Times-Picayune reported.

Editor’s note: Amid discussion about the potential legalization of medical marijuana in Louisiana, St. Landry Parish Sheriff Bobby Guidroz has offered his perspective in this column. This is the latest of a series of his articles on the subject.

Myth 1: ‘I can’t become addicted to marijuana’

Marijuana may not be as addictive as tobacco or heroin, but 1 in every 6 teens, (and 1 in every 11 adults) who ever try marijuana will become addicted to it. Just as with alcohol and tobacco, most chronic marijuana users who attempt to stop “cold turkey” will experience an array of withdrawal symptoms such as irritability, restlessness, anxiety, depression, insomnia, and/or cravings. These are classic signs of dependency.

Louisiana lawmakers have convened the 2015 legislative session. Already multiple bills have been filed to change how the state treats marijuana consumers, including those who use marijuana for medical purposes.

One state representative hopes that his second effort to enable Louisiana doctors to prescribe medical marijuana will clear at least the first hurdle — getting the bill out of committee.(Photo: AP)

BATON ROUGE – State Sen. Fred Mills, R-Parks, hopes that his second effort to enable Louisiana doctors to prescribe medical marijuana will clear at least the first hurdle — getting the bill out of committee.

Mills, a pharmacist who once led the Louisiana Board of Pharmacy, is proposing Senate Bill 143, legislation that would develop rules and guidelines for producing medical marijuana and dispensing it.

The bill will be presented at 10 a.m. Wednesday before the Senate Health and Welfare Committee.

About a week before the Louisiana Legislature convened, state Rep. Dalton Honore trekked to Denver for field research related to legislation he's pushing in Louisiana. The journey brought him just a few blocks from the Colorado State Capitol, to a marijuana dispensary.

"Some of the (pot) shops look like Apple stores," said Honore, a Democrat from Baton Rouge, as he scrolled through photos of marijuana plants on his iPhone.

The 72-year-old is a former sheriffs deputy who has "never had a marijuana cigarette in my life." Moreover, he said, he's never been in the company people smoking it. But Honore said it is time stop locking people up for using the drug and start treating it more like alcohol by focusing on education and treatment.

The Global Marijuana March (GMM) is kicking off at different locations across the world taking place this year on Saturday May 2, 2015 and include marches, meetings, rallies, concerts, festivals and other relevant information and events relating to cannabis.

The Global Marijuana March began in 1999 which have had hundreds of thousands of people participated in over 829 different cities in 72 countries worldwide since its inception.

The Global Marijuana March is a celebration embracing cannabis culture as a personal lifestyle choice. Participants unite to discuss, promote, entertain and educate both consumers and non-consumers alike.

We know the end is coming, but pot prohibition is going to have to be undone state by state. Here are the ones least likely to jump on the bandwagon.

Marijuana prohibition in the US is dying, but it isn't going to vanish in one fell swoop. Even if Congress were to repeal federal pot prohibition, state laws criminalizing the plant and its users would still be in effect—at least in some states.

And it's probably a pretty safe bet that Congress isn’t going to act until a good number of states, maybe more than half, have already legalized it. That process is already underway and is likely to gather real momentum by the time election day 2016 is over.

The French Quarter in New Orleans could be buzzing with more than jazz and joie de vivre if a Baton Rouge lawmaker gets his way.
(Photo courtesy of the Louisiana Office of Tourism)

In “Weed the People,” Bainbridge Island author Bruce Barcott delivers a thorough and entertaining survey of the burgeoning legalization of marijuana in the U.S. Barcott appears April 15 at Seattle’s Elliott Bay Book Co.

‘Weed the People: The Future of Legal Marijuana in America’ by Bruce Barcott Time, Inc., 400 pp., $22.95

Louisiana residents, for the most part, have a much more relaxed and tolerant approach toward marijuana than current state laws reflect, according to findings from a statewide survey conducted by LSU this winter. 

LSU conducted its poll of 980 state residents between Jan. 12 and Feb. 13. The margin of error is 3.1 percentage points in either direction. The survey is performed every year by the Reilly Center for Media and Public Affairs as well as the Public Policy Research Lab. 

The university asked about three different marijuana policies. Here is what it found: