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Should the change in the federal designation of marijuana affect whether lawmakers make it legal?
The recent news regarding the possible reclassification of marijuana from a Schedule I to Schedule III drug understandably has many wondering what this change could mean for Indiana’s marijuana laws.
It’s important to understand what that change would mean—and what it wouldn’t. In rescheduling marijuana, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is recognizing that, while marijuana isn’t as harmful as drugs like meth, it still needs to be a controlled substance that is not legally available for recreational use. The move wouldn’t even allow doctors to prescribe marijuana, since it has not been approved for medical use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. At the outset, the only change would be that pharmaceutical companies could start seeking FDA approval for medications that contain compounds from the marijuana plant.
That is a far cry from a meaningful move to legalize marijuana for an average person to use.
At the Indiana Statehouse, lawmakers have had many conversations about marijuana laws, as support for legalizing marijuana in some form has risen. However, as policymakers, we face far more nuanced and difficult questions beyond, “Should marijuana be legalized—yes or no?”
Considerations for public safety include increases in impaired driving—in Colorado, one in four road deaths involves marijuana.
We must also consider the implications for children. In states where marijuana is legal, unintentional ingestion of products by minors is growing. Over a seven-year span in Colorado, calls to poison control for marijuana-related instances in children 5 years old and younger increased 586%.
Of further concern is the fact that today’s recreational marijuana is more potent than ever, and as many as 30% of marijuana users now have some form of use disorder. Healthy individuals who use cannabis are two to four times more likely to develop psychosis. Research has shown that approximately one in four patients with schizophrenia is also diagnosed with cannabis use disorder.
Last, in what is a great and unfortunate irony, cannabis has been linked with anxiety, and THC has been shown to elicit anxiety, but that’s why users often turn to cannabis in the first place—they need help curbing anxiety.
Finally, we can’t pretend that legalization has been an economic windfall in states where marijuana is legal. Marijuana tax collections as a percentage of state budgets were, at the highest, a meager 1.6% in 2023.
There is another fundamental, unresolved concern: States that have legalized marijuana—either medical or recreational—are in violation of federal law, leaving doctors and businesses operating in the marijuana market trapped in what is at best a legal gray area. If the DEA’s current rescheduling proposal comes to fruition, that disconnect between state laws and federal law would remain unchanged.
Since this potential rescheduling of marijuana doesn’t signal that it’s safe for recreational use or even widespread medicinal use, Indiana would be wise to continue approaching marijuana issues thoughtfully and cautiously.•
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Bray, an attorney, is a Republican representing the 37th District in the Indiana Senate and is president pro tempore. Send comments to ibjedit@ibj.com.
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Indiana will legalize marijuana once legislators get enough of those sweet, sweet campaign contributions.