Louisiana
Edible hemp industry spared in Louisiana, though lawmakers add restrictions • Louisiana Illuminator
A proposal to do away with edible hemp products in Louisiana has fizzled in the Legislature, sparing an industry that has blossomed since bungled legislation legalized it two years ago.
On the House floor Friday, members attempted to find a happy medium on Senate Bill 237 by Sen. Thomas Pressly, R-Shreveport, which would have led to the demise of some 2,000 hemp-related businesses that have taken root in Louisiana since 2022.
Rep. Laurie Schlegel, R-Metairie, offered compromise amendments to the Pressly bill that would have required all intoxicating ingredients be taken out of hemp products. Prevailing arguments were made in support of jobs and companies the hemp industry has spawned in Louisiana.
“I know there are a lot of you in this room who smoke weed, who ingest weed,” Rep. Mandie Landry, D-New Orleans, said in opposition to Schegel’s amendments. “If you don’t vote against this, I think you’re being a huge hypocrite.”
The amendments failed, 39-60, and Pressly’s bill foundered without being brought up for a House vote.
Later Friday on the Senate side, members approved House Bill 952 by Rep. Dustin Miller, D-Opelousas, which would place several restrictions on the types of consumable products that can contain hemp and the amount per serving of THC, the same psychoactive compound found in marijuana that gets users high.
Intoxicating hemp-infused beverages would no longer be served at bars and restaurants, and hemp gummies and other snacks would be limited to 5 mg of THC per serving size, down from 8 mg.
Hemp products have become readily available in Louisiana, but Senate amendments to Miller’s bill would prohibit their sale at convenience stores and gas stations. They would still be available at truck stops, however.
The Senate approved the updated bill in a 37-1 vote. The House still needs to OK senators’ changes to Miller’s proposal, but Pressly doesn’t intend to revive his bill before the legislative session ends at 6 p.m. Monday.
Calls for stricter regulation of hemp products came from the medical marijuana and alcoholic beverage sectors, which view the fledgling field as a competitor.
State lawmakers unwittingly approved a bill in 2022 to allow the manufacturing and sale of hemp-derived products. The author of the bill, then-House Speaker Clay Schexnayder, R-French Settlement, had incorrectly assured legislators there wouldn’t be enough THC in hemp gummies, drinks and other edibles to get anyone high.
Gaps in the legislation permitted makers of hemp edibles to cram multiple servings into their products in order to pack more of a THC punch inside each container or package.
The hemp industry has also put its scientific expertise to use to make its products more desirable. Manufacturers have found a way to convert cannabidiol (CBD), a separate chemical found in hemp that doesn’t produce a high, into a THC extract using simple chemistry. They then concentrate it into drinks, gummies and other edibles.
That pageant feeds into the Miss Louisiana pageant, which is part of the Miss America system. The winner of Miss Louisiana Saturday night will move on to the Miss America pageant.
Addison’s pageant platform is encouraging girls to build confidence in themselves — Confidence to Career, Jackson said.
“She competed last night for the preliminary in talent and on stage question and will compete tonight in beauty and fitness,” Jackson said.
On Saturday at the beginning of the pageant, the field will be cut to 11 contestants, and then the top five.
“One of the top five will get a crown,” Jackson said.
The preliminary competitions and the pageant will be streamed on MissLouisiana.com and the Saturday pageant will be broadcast live on KNOE-TV.
“They let me see her for five minutes yesterday,” she said. “This is the experience of a lifetime. She is making friendships and relationships that will last a lifetime. We are so proud of her. Addison is such a sweet girl.”
She is the youngest of three sisters, Allison and Anna Claire Jackson.
Angela said her husband, Craig Jackson, is particularly excited and proud of all three of his daughters.
“He’s a great girl dad,” she said. “They think he hung the moon, and he did.”
Louisiana
After redistricting battles, Southern gathers for Juneteenth celebration: ‘Continue the fight’
Hundreds of community members, alumni and students gathered Thursday to observe Juneteenth on the Southern University campus in Baton Rouge.
The theme of the festivities was “celebrating freedom through culture and community,” but weeks after Louisiana’s bitter redistricting battles, the speakers Thursday morning had one message driving their remarks: Get out and vote.
“Freedom does not come in on the wheels of inevitability,” Louisiana Supreme Court Associate Justice John Michael Guidry said to the crowd. “But it takes the prodigious work and the tireless efforts of those who are willing to continue the fight.”
Great Beginnings summer camper Myni, 4, gets a hello kitty face painting during Southern’s Juneteenth celebration on Thursday, June 18, 2026 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Staff photo by Michael Johnson
The speech kicked off a day of discussions and cultural events centered on the holiday of Juneteenth, which commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union Gen. Gordon Granger brought news of emancipation to enslaved people in Texas more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued.
Speakers at Southern emphasized the need for protection of hard-won rights for Black Americans in the context of redistricting. The sentiments followed a contentious state legislative session that ended with the elimination of one of Louisiana’s two majority-Black congressional districts after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais.
“That Voting Rights Act is under attack,” Guidry said. “There’s voter intimidation, there’s voter suppression, there are voter ID laws and all types of laws and legal decisions that are trying to deny us our right to vote, and we are the ones who have to go forward and litigate these issues.”
The day opened with a libation ceremony and a rendition of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” by Southern University student Claire Floyd.
Southern University alumnus Jeanet Cazenave said she felt it was important to celebrate Juneteenth on campus as not only a relative of the first dean of Southern University but also a descendant of the GU272, a group of enslaved individuals who were sold to plantations in Louisiana in 1838 by Jesuit priests to pay the debts of what is now Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
Juneteenth “means everything,” Cazenave said. “It means the past, the present and the future.”
BATON ROUGE, La. (KLFY) — Governor Landry has officially declared Louisiana under state of emergency.
The state emergency declaration covers Avoyelles, Lafourche, Pointe Coupee, St. Landry, St. Tammany and Terrebonne parishes.
The declaration was issued Thursday following the impacts of Tropical Storm Arthur, which brough rainfall and strong storms to parts of the state on June 17 and 18.
Officials said the National Weather Service has confirmed three tornadoes tied to the storm system.
Officials also reported record or near-record rainfall totals in Avoyelles and Pointe Coupee parishes over a 12-hour period.
The order allows the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness to coordinate resources and provide assistance to local governments if needed.
Certain state purchasing and bidding requirements have been temporarily suspended to speed up emergency response efforts.
The declaration took effect immediately and will remain in place through July 18 unless it is lifted or extended.
State officials are urging residents to stay weather aware, avoid flooded roadways and follow guidance from local emergency managers.
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