diff --git a/changelog/62886.fixed b/changelog/62886.fixed
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..0c20e2bfa4e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/62886.fixed
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Moving setting the LOAD_BALANCING_POLICY_MAP dictionary into the try except block that determines if the cassandra_cql module should be made available.
diff --git a/salt/modules/cassandra_cql.py b/salt/modules/cassandra_cql.py
index 3aba0f9b4b1..4e5ddcee71b 100644
--- a/salt/modules/cassandra_cql.py
+++ b/salt/modules/cassandra_cql.py
@@ -136,27 +136,27 @@ try:
 
     # pylint: enable=import-error,no-name-in-module
     HAS_DRIVER = True
+
+    LOAD_BALANCING_POLICY_MAP = {
+        "HostDistance": HostDistance,
+        "LoadBalancingPolicy": LoadBalancingPolicy,
+        "RoundRobinPolicy": RoundRobinPolicy,
+        "DCAwareRoundRobinPolicy": DCAwareRoundRobinPolicy,
+        "WhiteListRoundRobinPolicy": WhiteListRoundRobinPolicy,
+        "TokenAwarePolicy": TokenAwarePolicy,
+        "HostFilterPolicy": HostFilterPolicy,
+        "SimpleConvictionPolicy": SimpleConvictionPolicy,
+        "ExponentialReconnectionPolicy": ExponentialReconnectionPolicy,
+        "RetryPolicy": RetryPolicy,
+        "IdentityTranslator": IdentityTranslator,
+        "NoSpeculativeExecutionPlan": NoSpeculativeExecutionPlan,
+        "NoSpeculativeExecutionPolicy": NoSpeculativeExecutionPolicy,
+    }
+
 except ImportError:
     pass
 
 
-LOAD_BALANCING_POLICY_MAP = {
-    "HostDistance": HostDistance,
-    "LoadBalancingPolicy": LoadBalancingPolicy,
-    "RoundRobinPolicy": RoundRobinPolicy,
-    "DCAwareRoundRobinPolicy": DCAwareRoundRobinPolicy,
-    "WhiteListRoundRobinPolicy": WhiteListRoundRobinPolicy,
-    "TokenAwarePolicy": TokenAwarePolicy,
-    "HostFilterPolicy": HostFilterPolicy,
-    "SimpleConvictionPolicy": SimpleConvictionPolicy,
-    "ExponentialReconnectionPolicy": ExponentialReconnectionPolicy,
-    "RetryPolicy": RetryPolicy,
-    "IdentityTranslator": IdentityTranslator,
-    "NoSpeculativeExecutionPlan": NoSpeculativeExecutionPlan,
-    "NoSpeculativeExecutionPolicy": NoSpeculativeExecutionPolicy,
-}
-
-
 def __virtual__():
     """
     Return virtual name of the module only if the python driver can be loaded.