Committee OKs updates to Drug Policy Board membership, language

Representative Butler presented House Bill 316, which revises the statutory framework for the state Drug Policy Board to modernize terminology, update membership slots and add representatives from collegiate recovery programs and an individual with lived recovery experience.

Staff said the 1996 language in statute remains stigmatizing; the bill replaces phrases such as “substance abuse” with “substance misuse” and makes other technical updates. The bill removes a hard-to-fill federal-agency seat and replaces it with a representative from the Louisiana Supreme Court Drug and Specialty Courts, and it narrows a vague private-organization seat to a representative of an in-state private or nonprofit organization that provides substance-use education, treatment and prevention.

Representative Butler said the board will expand from 23 to 25 members to add the two seats. Committee members asked whether changing “abuse” to “misuse” would create conflicts elsewhere in law; staff and the sponsor said it would not create such conflicts. The committee adopted technical amendments and reported the bill favorably with amendments.

All action in committee was by voice; no roll-call vote was recorded in the transcript.