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After President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug, Indiana lawmakers could feel more pressure to legalize or regulate it in some form.
For several years, the common refrain among some state lawmakers has been that they had no desire to tackle the issue until the federal government reclassified the drug.
Now that the president has taken that step, Indiana finds itself as one of only seven states that hasn’t legalized marijuana for medical purposes. Of the 43 states that allow medical use, at least 24 of them also allow recreational use, according to The Marijuana Policy Project.
“If anything, we should have a regulatory structure and move forward in some way,” Ethan Manning, a Logansport Republican and chair of the House Public Policy Committee, said Thursday afternoon at Dentons’ annual legislative conference.
Manning noted he has heard even conservative Hoosiers in his district show support for medicinal legalization, as surrounding states have done. But Manning went a step further and suggested that if the state were to legalize the drug for medical use, then they should also just go the “whole way.”
“It’s just a reality,” Manning said of Hoosiers already using the drug. “And we see poll after poll showing lots of Hoosiers supporting it.”
Ball State University’s 2024 Hoosier Survey found strong support for marijuana legalization, with 62% favoring full legalization (recreation and medicinal) and an additional 25% backing medicinal-only legalization.
With Trump’s executive order, the drug has been downgraded from a Schedule 1, like heroin and LSD, to a Schedule III substance, along with ketamine and some anabolic steroids.
Trump’s move doesn’t federally legalize marijuana, however. That decision is left to the states.
While Manning is open to the debate, some Indiana Republicans have voiced concerns about Trump’s decision.
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita said in a joint statement with several other conservative attorneys general that they are “concerned” with the issuance of the order, citing their long-held views on the drug.
“We all believe the science surrounding marijuana—which has become only more clear in recent weeks—properly establishes it as a Schedule I drug, and we have seen firsthand the harm the drug has caused in our communities,” the statement said.
Earlier this week, Trump said reclassification of the drug would allow for more research into it, and he added today in the Oval Office that people have been “begging” for him to reclassify it.
State Rep. Kyle Miller, a Fort Wayne Democrat and member of the House Public Policy Committee, said at Denton’s legislative conference that it’s “past time” for the state to decide what a regulated THC market looks like.
“We continue to hear this refrain over and over again, ‘Let’s wait and see what the federal government does; let’s hold off and see what they do,'” Miller said. “Well, they’ve acted, and now it’s time to have that conversation.”
Manning said it seems to him that House members want to move forward on marijuana, but the Senate wants to go the other way.
“So that’s probably why we haven’t been able to come to an agreement on what a regulatory structure looks like for the hemp-derived products,” he said.
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