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Katie Corkern is a mother of three sons in Amite. One of her sons is Connor, 13, who has a birth defect in his brain. For most of his life, he has experienced between 50 to 200 seizures each day.
He is unable to function independently and suffers damage to his brain, liver and other organs from his array of anti-epileptic medications.
“His neurologist had come to a point where we were just at a loss,” said Corkern. “We tried so many different medications, we tried surgeries, we did diets, and nothing was really relieving him from the constant seizure activity in his brain.
“At that point, he was on seven different anti-epileptic seizure medications,” she said. “The side effects were devastating, along with the constant seizure activity. At some point, the doctor said, ‘Well, the last thing I would recommend is medical marijuana, but that’s not legal here in Louisiana.’”
Thus began Corkern’s journey, along with state Sen. Fred Mills, R-Parks, and many other advocates to legalize medical marijuana in Louisiana. That happened in 2016, but the therapeutic use of marijuana is just gaining momentum here after a slew of delays and regulatory setbacks. Roughly 3,500 patients in Louisiana are using it, mostly to relieve pain, and some see it as a substitute for highly addictive opioids. And with more supporters of the program joining the state Legislature this year, it may be expanded to provide greater accessibility statewide.
For Connor Corkern, using medical marijuana has lessened some types of seizures by 75%, according to his mother, along with giving him the ability to now clap and express emotions.
The average age of medical marijuana users in the state is 52, and the most common condition is intractable pain. Thirteen percent of users are PTSD patients, while 26% of the patients are recovering opiate users.
Mills said that “folks tell me, ‘I was on opioids, and now I’m on medical marijuana. I’m not having the side effects, and I’m more productive.’”
The state has approved two facilities to grow marijuana for medical use: the GB Sciences Louisiana location at the LSU AgCenter —recently bought out by Wellcana Plus LLC— and Ilera Holistic Healthcare at Southern University.
Licensed doctors recommend marijuana to patients rather than prescribe it to protect themselves from federal laws that prohibit the use, sale or distribution of marijuana. The patients may receive their medication through a 30-milliliter tincture, which is a concentration dissolved in an alcohol solution for oral consumption.
Tinctures are made with cannabinoids THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, and CBD, or cannabidiol. THC combines with receptors in the brain that control mood and pain to create a sense of euphoria in users. CBD creates no “high” for users but increases attentiveness, lowers anxiety and relieves inflammatory pain.
Tinctures come in three forms: high CBD, designed for patients with epilepsy, seizure disorders and autism spectrum disorder; high THC, designed for patients with chronic pain, PTSD, glaucoma and related disorders; and a balanced formulation, designed for patients with multiple sclerosis and muscular dystrophy, according to GB Sciences president John Davis.
Medical marijuana was first legalized in Louisiana in the 1970s, but the legislation lacked the regulations needed to implement it. It was not until Mills sponsored a bill in 2016 to regulate growing facilities and allow for the licensing of doctors and pharmacies that the use of medical marijuana became viable in the state.
“A few people called me up that had just debilitating diseases,” Mills recalled, and hearing from them made him feel that the decision about whether to use medical marijuana should be between the physician and the patient.
“And that person should have that opportunity,” he said. “You have prescription therapy, and there should be an alternative.”
After his bill passed, it took two and a half years before medical marijuana became available to the public. Once the regulation and testing period between GB Sciences and the Department of Agriculture finished, the company held a monopoly on a limited supply of medical marijuana for months.
Southern University’s facility had even longer delays. Its original partner, Advanced Biomedics, did little to begin production before the majority owner sold his stake in the company last fall. Ilera Holistic Healthcare became the sole partner in the venture soon after that and did not begin production until August.
The program continues to have problems. Health insurance does not cover medical marijuana, and 30-milliliter bottles cost $90 to $250, making the medicine next to inaccessible for lower-income people.
It takes Connor Corkern 15 days to go through a bottle. His family spends $200 per month on medical marijuana, not to mention the other medications they buy for him.
The Louisiana Board of Pharmacy, which licenses and regulates the pharmacies that dispense marijuana products, has received complaints about potential patients’ lack of access to the treatment.
“We have heard from some patients that there are not enough physicians authorized to issue recommendations for medical marijuana,” said Malcom Broussard, the board’s executive director. “Others have told us about the limited number of pharmacies available to dispense the product as well as the retail cost of those products.”
There are only three pharmacies in the northern and central parts of the state: one each in Alexandria, Monroe and Shreveport.
On the production side, Sen. Mills critiqued the intense level of testing and regulation on growing facilities, as they caused multiple delays in launching the medical marijuana program.
“I think what we wanted to be was extra cautious,” he said. “Sometimes, as you know, perfection and being too cautious can take time.”
Mills and other advocates say that with a big changeover in lawmakers as a result of recent term limits, there could be adjustments to the medical marijuana rules in this year’s session.
Travis Johnson, a Democrat from Ferriday, who won the general election in November and will be a freshman in the House, said he supports medical marijuana legislation, unlike his predecessor Rep. John Anders, D-Clayton, who voted against the 2016 bill to legalize medical marijuana.
Johnson also hopes to expand legislation to allow farmers to grow hemp.
Other incoming lawmakers, like Barry Milligan, a Republican from Shreveport who was elected to the state Senate, are keeping their cards close to their chests. Milligan has stated that he is against recreational marijuana use, but he is making no statements regarding medical marijuana until he is sworn into office.
One change likely to come out of the next legislative session is expanding the list of conditions that qualify for medical marijuana, said Mills and Commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry Mike Strain.
As for delivery mechanisms, Louisiana will soon introduce metered-dose inhalers. Medical marijuana producers are also working on topical ointments, gummies and oral strips similar to Listerine mints, according to Jesse McCormick, the executive director of Louisiana Association for Therapeutic Alternatives.
“We will be supportive of whatever the Legislature asks us to do,” Strain said.
Still, some advocates say it costs so much to buy medical marijuana that patients could be tempted to black market means of obtaining cannabis. Patients also could find a legal loophole by obtaining a doctor’s recommendation, purchasing unregulated, untested marijuana on the black market, and then using the recommendation to bypass drug tests.
“It’s just absurd to think that anybody could go would pay $250 a month,” said Jeffry Sanford, a medical marijuana advocate. “Now, you can go spend $250 a month for your prescription. Other people choose to go on the black market and buy a quarter pound of marijuana for $500— and that’s for raw materials.”
“If you think about it, if you get one of these recommendations from doctors, then when you go to court or apply for a job, they can still bypass a positive drug screening,” Sanford said.

February 19, 1951 — January 1, 2020
David “Rerun” McDonald Jr., 68, a resident of Bayou Vista, passed away peacefully on January 1, 2020, at 11:53 a.m. at Terrebonne General Medical Center surrounded by his loving family.
David was born on February 19, 1951, in Vicksburg, Mississippi, the son of David McDonald Sr. and Nola McDermitt McDonald.
David never met a stranger and had a heart of gold, he would always say that if he could just make one person smile, then he did what he was supposed to do for that day. He was a proud member of the Bayou Vista Volunteer Fire Department for over 18 years. He enjoyed cooking and if you came over to the house to visit, you were not leaving until you would eat.
David will be sadly missed and lovingly remembered by his wife of 49 years, Donna Cook McDonald of Bayou Vista; his mother, Nola McDermitt McDonald; three daughters, Vernangus “Annie” DiFondi and husband Russell of Phoenix, Arizona, Jennifer McDonald and Jeff “Bubba” LaCoste Jr. of Bayou Vista, and Melanie Gagneaux and husband Brian of Bayou Vista; seven grandchildren, David DiFondi, Alison Fraley and husband Chance, Samantha DiFondi, Sarah Pearce and husband Justin, Michael DiFondi, Claiton LaCoste and Jayden Gagneaux; one great-grandson, Justin Pearce; two sisters, Judy McDonald, and Jane Grady and husband Henry; and one brother, James “Bodie” McDonald and wife Brenda.
David was preceded in death by his father, David McDonald Sr.; stepmother, Billie McDonald; and son-in-law, Dean Broussard.
Those serving as pallbearers will be David DiFondi, Justin Voisin, Dale Crouch, Calvert “Pop” LaHoste, Ronnie Fuller, Chris Chaisson, Clarence Cook and Donnie Daffron.
Funeral services will be held at 6 p.m. on Saturday, January 4, 2020, at Bayou Vista Baptist Church with the Rev. Steven Kelly officiating. A visitation will be held from 4 p.m. until the time of the service.
In lieu of flowers memorial contributions may be given to the family.

The 2020 presidential preference primary election will be April 4. Party offices be on the ballot.
Qualifying will be Jan. 8-10 at the Clerk of Court’s Office, second floor, St. Mary Parish Courthouse in Franklin from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.
Qualifying fees for Democratic State Central Committee member as well as Democratic Parish Executive Committee member is $112.50.
Qualifying fees for Republican State Central Committee member as well as Republican Parish Executive Committee member is $112.50.

Until relatively recent times, the New Year was the time to exchange gifts in many Acadiana households, and it was almost a certainty that a sweet-tasting orange or satsuma would be one of the things, sometimes the only thing, stuffed into a stocking.
Gifts were simpler then and oranges were plentiful.
Much of southern Louisiana was covered with citrus trees. In fact, Cameron Parish was once one of the leading orange producers in the nation.
In 1892, the New Orleans Picayune reported, “The future of southwest Louisiana can be assured financially because of its gigantic orange groves. In Cameron Parish alone, 1,500,000 of the finest oranges were produced. They are said to be the sweetest and best of all.”
According to that report, someone driving the 16 miles across Grand Chenier would “see nothing but orange groves.”
The trees were such a symbol of Cameron Parish, that growers there planned to send a potted tree “with a thousand oranges on its limbs” to the 1893 World’s Fair.
Freezes, hurricanes, droughts, and saltwater encroachment did in the Cameron groves.
Most of them were gone by the late 1920s or earlier. A bitter freeze in 1930 finished off practically all the trees that were still producing.
But they were valuable while they lasted.
In 1915, according to an account by southwest Louisiana historian Nola Mae Ross, a New Orleans firm sent a representative to Grand Chenier to buy some orange groves.
He offered $100 an acre — a lot of money in those days.
The landowners said no.
He offered $150. Still no deal.
The growers were harvesting $400 or more per acre every year and thought things would get better.
They weren’t alone.
The Lake Charles American (forerunner to today’s American Press), reported in the late 1890s, “Fruits fit for the gods hang in rich profusion from the loaded branches of orange trees,” and said that southwest Louisiana groves were “places of wonder for 12 months of the year.”
Charles Fitzenreiter, my grandmother’s father, settled in what is now north Lake Charles in 1898 and planted 15 acres of satsumas, tangerines, limes and grapefruit.
He called his orchard The Tangisuma.
Some of his trees continued to bear until the bitter winter of 1940, the coldest ever in southwest Louisiana.
By that time the biggest part of his sprawling orchard had become the Orange Grove Cemetery in Lake Charles.
The tradition of Louisiana citrus for Christmas and New Year’s hasn’t completely gone away, but most of the state’s growers today are small-scale, part-time operators who sell their fruit through roadside stands or from the backs of trucks.
The problems for our citrus farmers are the same as they were a century ago — freezes that can reach even into balmy southern parishes and hurricanes that seem to be visiting more regularly and with more punch these days.
There are some orchards in Plaquemines Parish, the southernmost in the state, but growers there have had to keep up a stubborn fight to maintain a crop.
The first Plaquemines Parish Orange Festival was held in 1947 to promote the citrus crop, but a severe freeze in 1951 nearly crushed the fair and industry.
Record-breaking freezes struck again in 1962 and 1963, but growers persevered and were making a comeback in 1965, when Hurricane Betsy uprooted many of the trees.
Camille did more damage a few years later. Since then other freezes have damaged the crop, and discouraged growers, but some still persist.
In 2018, citrus was Louisiana’s number one fruit crop, but fruit trees are only a tiny part of our agricultural economy.
Commercial growers planted only 884 acres with a harvest worth $9.6 million, according to the LSU AgCenter. Satsumas made up two-thirds of that crop and navel oranges most of the rest of it.
That was down from 964 acres planted in 2017 with a harvest value of more than $11 million.
Only 10 of those acres harvested in 2018 were in Cameron Parish, where gigantic groves once made it a leading producer of the best and sweetest oranges in the nation.
A collection of Jim Bradshaw’s columns, "Cajuns and Other Characters," is now available from Pelican Publishing. You can contact him at jimbradshaw4321@gmail.com or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.