Senator Pressly convinced the House Administration of Criminal Justice Committee to report SB 237 favorably to the full House of Representatives. SB 237 is a COMPLETE BAN OF HEMP DERIVED THC PRODUCTS. After lengthy testimony, the committee voted 7-5 to BAN HEMP THC products in Louisiana. The bill will be scheduled for a vote by the full house.
The committee room was packed and another room was opened to handle the overflowing crowd of people attending the meeting. Representative Villio, chair of the committee, limited presentations to 5 people from each side of the issue. In total, 28 people signed cards supporting the BAN of products and 68 people signed cards opposing the legislation.
Leading up to the meeting, several groups applied considerable pressure to committee members to approve SB 237. The Hemp Association of Louisiana lobbying team lobbied the committee prior to the meeting in an attempt to kill the bill in committee. We knew the vote would be close and were unsure of the outcome until each committee member voted.
Representative Fontenot led the support of SB 237 and drilled the people speaking against the bill with lots of questions. Chair Villio expressed her support of the bill during the presentations as did Representative Cox.
Representative Knox and Representative Walters asked questions and urged their colleagues to support tighter regulations over a BAN bill, referring to Representative Miller's HB 952. HB 952 has been approved by the house and is awaiting review by the Senate Agriculture Committee.
To watch the committee meeting go to: https://house.louisiana.gov/H_Video/2024/May2024
and look for the Criminal Justice Committee meeting of May 14th. The archived video is in two parts.
Your Voice does count. We encourage you to email your representatives on this issue AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. We also ask that you encourage your friends and neighbors to do the same. During the committee meeting, Representative Ventrella said she had recieved over 400 emails from people supporting the BAN of hemp products, we believe its was a deciding factor in her vote in favor of SB 237 to Ban Hemp Products.
To express your opposition to SB 237, go to: https://www.congressweb.com/LHE/
All you have to do is enter your name and address and the system will look up you representatives and send them a pre-written email signed by you. You do have the option to write your own message.
If you know your representatives personally, we encourage you to contact them and ask them to vote no to SB 237.
We will let you know once the bill is schedule for a vote by the House.
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