---
type: "Bill"
title: "DRUGS: Reduces criminal penalties for certain offenses involving legend drugs"
description: "DRUGS: Reduces criminal penalties for certain offenses involving legend drugs"
jurisdiction: "us/states/la"
legislature: "Louisiana Legislature"
session: "2018"
identifier: "HB 224"
citation: "Louisiana HB 224 (2018)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Joseph Marino"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 19
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2018-02-28"
last_action: "2018-05-15"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/74dc6ac9-c9e5-4e39-8cbd-aa34ef29d18c"
source_url: "http://www.legis.la.gov/Legis/BillInfo.aspx?i=233506"
source_hash: "ebdfd93139aa5b5b5e4ee24ede2af9dc0920f0eaccd2b00d3f7c9b4746cbcf02"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-la"]
---

# Louisiana HB 224 (2018) — DRUGS: Reduces criminal penalties for certain offenses involving legend drugs

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **HB224 Original** (filed) — [source](http://www.legis.la.gov/Legis/ViewDocument.aspx?d=1069071)
2. **HB224 Act 203** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.la.gov/Legis/ViewDocument.aspx?d=1099059)
3. **HB224 Engrossed** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.la.gov/Legis/ViewDocument.aspx?d=1080035)
4. **HB224 Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](http://www.legis.la.gov/Legis/ViewDocument.aspx?d=1094388)

## Votes

- FINAL PASSAGE (#790) — **22–11** (pass) · legislature
- FINAL PASSAGE (#253) — **93–1** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Joseph Marino — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2018-05-15** Effective date: 08/01/2018.
- **2018-05-15** Signed by the Governor. Becomes Act No. 203. `executive-signature`
- **2018-05-10** Sent to the Governor for executive approval. `executive-receipt`
- **2018-05-10** Signed by the President of the Senate.
- **2018-05-09** Enrolled and signed by the Speaker of the House.
- **2018-05-08** Received from the Senate without amendments.
- **2018-05-07** Read by title, passed by a vote of 22 yeas and 11 nays, and ordered returned to the House. Motion to reconsider tabled. `passage`
- **2018-05-03** Reported without Legislative Bureau amendments. Read by title and passed to third reading and final passage.
- **2018-05-02** Read by title and referred to the Legislative Bureau.
- **2018-05-01** Reported favorably.
- **2018-04-05** Read second time by title and referred to the Committee on Judiciary C. `referral-committee`
- **2018-04-04** Received in the Senate. Rules suspended. Read first time by title and placed on the Calendar for a second reading.
- **2018-04-04** Read third time by title, roll called on final passage, yeas 93, nays 1. Finally passed, title adopted, ordered to the Senate. `passage`
- **2018-03-29** Scheduled for floor debate on 04/04/18.
- **2018-03-29** Read by title, ordered engrossed, passed to 3rd reading.
- **2018-03-28** Reported favorably (16-0).
- **2018-03-12** Read by title, rules suspended, referred to the Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice. `referral-committee`
- **2018-02-28** Under the rules, provisionally referred to the Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice. `referral-committee`
- **2018-02-28** Prefiled. `filing`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/74dc6ac9-c9e5-4e39-8cbd-aa34ef29d18c`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Louisiana legislature records).