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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowJennifer McCormick, the Democratic candidate for governor, said Monday morning that she would attempt to legalize marijuana in Indiana through a stepping-stone plan guided by a regulatory body and lessons from the state’s Midwest neighbors.
Regulated medical marijuana would be made available initially under McCormick’s plan and, eventually, recreational adult use would be legalized. The speed of full legalization would be up to a newly-created commission, she said.
Under her roadmap, a body called the Indiana Cannabis Commission would be created to police and oversee the industry. McCormick said this body would guide decision-making related to permits and other regulations as well as guide the rollout.
Specifics on who would be on the commission were not provided, but McCormick said those details would worked out as part of an information-gathering process with nearby states. Nearly every state in the Midwest has legalized marijuana at least medicinally.
Legalizing marijuana would generate state revenue from taxes, bringing in an estimated $172 million annually, McCormick estimated.
Last year, Illinois reported cannabis dispensaries brought in $417.6 million in sales taxes. Ohio reported $54.6 million in recreational product sales, which includes a 10% excise tax, after the state’s first month of legalization.
Instead of money being directed to the state’s general fund, McCormick said she would try to channel cannabis revenue to support schools, police departments and other services. She also supported putting aside part of the sum for mental health and substance abuse programming.
The state is ready to take this step, she said, and it’s something Hoosiers have been asking for. A 2023 Ball State University study reports that 86.4% of Hoosiers polled said they supported some form of marijuana legalization with the majority pulling for recreational use.
Marijuana legalization has not gained traction in the Statehouse over the past several years, with a flurry of bills fizzling out each session. McCormick’s plan would need lawmaker sign-on, including a sizable portion of the Republican supermajority, but she said she would craft seek a bipartisan push similar to other red states.
“It will be critical in making sure that the plan is in such a format and is really scrutinized and detailed enough that the General Assembly feels comfortable going forward,” she said of past wariness about public health consequences and potential youth misuse.
Republican challenger Sen. Mike Braun hasn’t expressed a solid stance for or against marijuana legalization. In a March primary debate, he said he would leave that decision up to law enforcement, and said the issue was complicated by fentanyl lacing. He did leave the door open for medical marijuana.
“I hear a lot of input where that’s helpful,” he said during the debate. “I think that you need to listen and see what makes sense.”
McCormick’s plan also calls for better regulating hemp-derived THC products, which are frequently sold at Indiana’s gas stations and smoke shops.
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Braun’s plan of ‘leaving it up to law enforcement’ means leaving leaving the most abusable 4A loophole in tact.
No device can ever prove that an officer ‘smelled marijuana’, yet the assertion by police grants probable cause for searches & seizures that would otherwise be illegal. This is a very serious constitutional issue, but it’s the most obvious explanation as to why prosecutors & police unions are so against legalization. Any cop wishing to conduct an illegal search and & will simply claim that he smelled marijuana.
Meanwhile, marijuana is no more harmful than alcohol (it’s probably less harmful for adults); potent & intoxicating CBD derivatives are already available at Indiana at gas stations & smoke shops; and Hoosiers can and do simply drive across state lines to buy marijuana from Illinois, Michigan, and now Ohio. The latter two points make it easier for kids to get marijuana than it would be if Indiana actually legalized and regulated the market instead of pretending as if the law actually stops marijuana consumption.
Legalize marijuana, but:
>Tax marijuana as nearly as high as possible without diverting sales to neighboring states or the black market.
>Tax marijuana concentrates of EXTREMELY high THC concentration and smokable forms of marijuana right at the limit before people will seek other sources. The former need not end up in the hands of children (but is in Indiana via Delta 8 and out of state sales) and the latter can become a public nuisance.
>Add a realistic marijuana unit to health classes in public school. No sugar coating, but also no unreasonable scare tactics that lose credibility.
>Give local units of government control over marijuana’s sin tax revenue.
+1
As humans would have it,,, if the cops can’t smell it, the smokers will drive under the influence. Then there just might be death on the street before our specie learns its lesson.
Ps. I’m not against it.
agreed with Robert. also, there needs to be a warning label. i have heard about countless people who have a non lethal dose of weed and end up in the ER because of paranoia and being too high. i understand that it doesn’t have that impact on many people. But there are quite a few exceptions especially with edibles. I agree with decriminalization or even legalization but weed is not for everyone. extra caution with delta 8&9
I was hoping for concepts of a plan rather than an actual plan.
You win the internet for today!
Maybe Jennifer should decide what she wants to do when she grows up. She happily wasted voters support winning as a republican, but couldn’t hack it, so she resigned from the elected school superintendent position. Now she’s running under the other party platform and saying anything she can to waste votes again. Indiana will likely be the last state to legalize rope, so don’t buy into her nonsense.
Just a reminder that Republicans decided they were tired of letting voters choose the school superintendent so they decided to take that choice away from the voters … because the voters dared twice elect superintendents – trained educators – who dared think they knew more about education than a retired florist.
If you think the students of Indiana have been better off having Bob Behning be the loudest voice in Indiana education the last two decades, you may be smoking some sort of plant. But I think it’s clear that the longer Behning has inflicted his agenda, the worse the educational outcomes have been. You can only blame superintendents, teachers unions and teachers themselves for so long.
I Kind of agree with all the above, but what no one, especially our legislators and media, seem to understand or fairly report, is the fact that any overdoses or need for medical treatment, are from the edibles, and the inexperienced folks and rookie users that eat the edibles. The edibles take an hour or two to ‘kick in’, and folks seem to eat too much thinking they are not ‘getting off’. Once they do kick, then there is no reversal or slowing down the effects until it is metabolized, which can take several hours.
One cannot overdose or die from smoking the weed flower, in other words, we cannot smoke ourselves to death, and no one ever has.!!
If the edible is regulated and controlled separately from the smoking varieties, and limited in its dose sizes, then all should be fine.
The potency of the pot strain strength is not the issue, and trying to limit that is a waste of time and effort.
In closing my run on diatribe, legalizing marijuana will take the pot out of the black market hands, reduce shootings and killings during small scale sales deals, and free up the police to chase the more problematic illegal drugs. Folks could just walk down to the dispensary to buy pot instead of being robbed, shot, killed or beat like we have now.
Wasn’t the state approved gambling the last panacea for better schools and lower propert taxes.How has that worked out!
Don’t lie to us, it get’s mundane!
Tax it with mandatory 50% reduction in property taxes, public education is hopeless no matter how much money you throw at it!