Texas and Louisiana consider "softening" marijuana laws

[RainDog]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/24/two-states-in-the-deep-south-consider-legislation-to-soften-marijuana-laws/

Republican governors in the traditionally conservative states of Louisiana and Texas have issued statements to the effect that they are willing to soften their stance on marijuana.

On Thursday, Texas Governor Rick Perry told an international panel on drug legalization at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland that “I have begun to implement policies that start us toward a decriminalization.”

Perry did not address the medicinal use of marijuana in his statement, but his Republican compatriot to the east, Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, told The New Orleans Times-Picayune on Wednesday that he would be “open” to the idea of legalizing marijuana for medicinal use.

According to his spokesman, Kyle Plotkin, the governor “would be open to making medical marijuana available under strict circumstances,” but would be opposed to all other forms of legalization. He made his statements in response to a meeting by the Louisiana House Committee on the Administration of Criminal Justice in which they discussed the state’s harsh penalties for marijuana possession.