BATON ROUGE— With the narrowest of votes, the Louisiana House voted to lower the maximum sentence for repeat marijuana possession from 20 years to eight years.
The bill by Rep. Austin Badon, a New Orleans Democrat, moved to the Senate with a 53-36 vote. That was the minimum support needed to pass.
Law enforcement associations don’t oppose the bill, but Badon called it a tough vote because lawmakers could appear soft on crime in an election year.
The bill retains a six-month sentence for a first offense. But prison time for a second offense would drop from five to two years. A third conviction — which currently carries a 20-year maximum — would drop to a five-year maximum. A fourth conviction would have an 8-year sentence cap.
2 thoughts on “Bill reducing sentences for pot possession clears La. House”
on a totally different subject, is anyone getting a “weather widget” error popup? I have gotten it on numerous computers and numerous windows and Android operating systems, and have reported it several times to both their website guy and the editor and it seems they aren’t in the least bit concerned ;(
using pot shouldn’t be a crime. Selling pot OTOH is a different story. The jails are full of many people who made the wrong kind of mistake…imprison the repeat offenders and habitual drunks and those who show total disregard for the law.