Louisiana’s House has rejected a measure that would tax adult-use marijuana sales if and when the state passes the reform.
The Louisiana House narrowly defeated a measure on Tuesday that would tax adult-use cannabis sales which may prevent the Legislature from approving legalization this year or next, WDSU reports.
The tax measure affects 2022 because it is not a fiscal session.
While the proposal had needed two-thirds of the House to pass, the vote was 47-48.
The measure would have set cannabis taxes at 50% – half for the state’s general fund and half to local governments. Twenty percent of the local government share would have been earmarked for law enforcement.
Republican Rep. Richard Nelson, the sponsor of the tax bill has estimated legalized cannabis sales would have amounted to $100 million in annual tax revenues.
“Right now, all this money, we have zero. It’s nothing. It’s all going to the drug dealers. We don’t pass this bill, it’s going to go to the drug dealers this year, it’s going to go to the drug dealers next year,” said Nelson on the House floor via WDSU.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) said on his live radio program Wednesday however that cannabis legalization “is going to happen in Louisiana eventually.”
“In the past, as a legislator and as governor, I’ve been opposed to legalizing recreational marijuana,” the governor said on the monthly program, Ask the Governor. “I will tell you, I have come to believe that it is going to happen in Louisiana eventually.”
