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The Republican governor of Indiana says that, if President Donald Trump moves forward on federally rescheduling marijuana, the national reform could add \u201ca little bit of fire\u201d to the local push for cannabis legalization in his state.<\/p>\n
But at the same time, a GOP U.S. senator who represents Indiana is doubling down on his opposition to reform.<\/p>\n
Gov. Mike Braun (R)\u2014who said earlier this year that he\u2019s \u201camenable\u201d to medical cannabis legalization<\/a>, while expressing reservations about broader reform\u2014said during a news conference on Tuesday that he thinks rescheduling under the Trump administration could move the needle in Indiana\u2019s conservative legislature.<\/p>\n \u201cI think you can kind of extrapolate what\u2019s happened over the last five to seven years if you\u2019re going to want to try to gauge what may happen over the next few years,\u201d Braun said, as The Indianapolis Star reported<\/a>. \u201cSo I think [Trump\u2019s comment] probably adds a little more fuel to the fire in terms of the speed with which it might occur.\u201d<\/p>\n The president didn\u2019t explicitly say he intends to direct a reclassification of marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) at a press conference on Monday\u2014but he acknowledged the need for a review and said a decision would be made in the coming weeks<\/a>.<\/p>\n On the campaign trail, Trump did endorse rescheduling, as well as cannabis industry banking access and a Florida legalization ballot initiative, but this marked the first time he\u2019s publicly spoken about the issue since taking office in January.<\/p>\n Getting legalization enacted in Indiana would be a tall task, as GOP leadership in the legislature has made clear it\u2019s not interested in ending prohibition altogether.<\/p>\n And one member of the state\u2019s congressional delegation, Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN), expressed opposition to the state-level reform following Trump\u2019s remarks.<\/p>\n \u201cPresident Trump has been honest about it, that when it comes to marijuana, he said very clearly we shouldn\u2019t smell it on the streets. You have a lot of states that have legalized it. It\u2019s caused even more crime and issues,\u201d Banks said<\/a>. \u201cI hope Indiana is never a state that legalizes marijuana, by the way.\u201d<\/p>\n The senator acknowledged that there is likely to be \u201cfurther conversation\u201d about the issue.<\/p>\n \u201cI know at the Statehouse there\u2019s been conversation about legalizing marijuana in the state of Indiana,\u201d he said. \u201cI hope that doesn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n The governor, for his part, hasn\u2019t entirely ruled out the idea of adult-use legalization.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen it comes to recreational, I\u2019ve been clear that that has a need for further discussion. We see in some states they\u2019ve not been happy with the results of it,\u201d he said in January.<\/p>\n He also pointed out that Indiana is \u201cnow surrounded by four states, at least two of which have the entire spectrum legalized when it comes to recreational.\u201d<\/p>\n Braun has\u00a0previously said that \u201cit\u2019s probably time\u201d to allow access to therapeutic cannabis<\/a>\u00a0among patients in the state. Those comments came alongside a poll indicating that nearly 9 in 10 Indiana adults (87 percent) support marijuana legalization.<\/p>\n Top Republicans in the legislature, however,\u00a0have openly opposed marijuana reform<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s no secret that I am not for this,\u201d Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray (R) said during a panel at a law firm event in Indianapolis in December. \u201cI don\u2019t have people coming to me with really compelling medical cases as to why it\u2019s so beneficial. And any state that I\u2019ve seen pass medical marijuana is essentially passing recreational marijuana.\u201d<\/p>\n House Speaker Todd Huston (R), meanwhile, doubted any medical benefits associated with marijuana, calling the substance \u201ca deterrent to mental health.\u201d He and others suggested that lawmakers supportive of the reform merely want to boost state revenue.<\/p>\n When Senate Minority Leader Greg Taylor (D) said he felt Indiana was in fact falling behind other nearby states that have already legalized medical marijuana, Huston shot back: \u201cIf we are behind on having fewer people using an addictive substance, I don\u2019t know, I\u2019m OK with that.\u201d<\/p>\n A number of\u00a0marijuana reform bills have been introduced for the 2025 session<\/a>, including one\u2014from Reps. Jim Lucas (R) and Shane Lindauer (R)\u2014that would legalize medical marijuana for people with \u201cserious medical conditions as determined by their physician.\u201d<\/p>\n For what it\u2019s worth, a former GOP congressman who Trump initially nominated to serve as U.S. attorney general during the current term is renewing his call for marijuana rescheduling\u2014saying the \u201cgame is over for Democrats at the ballot box\u201d<\/a> if the president\u00a0moves forward on the reform.<\/p>\n Under the rescheduling proposal that was initiated under the Biden administration and now sits before the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), marijuana would be moved to Schedule III of the CSA. That wouldn\u2019t federally legalize the plant, but it would free up licensed cannabis retailers to access banking services and help facilitate research.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, following the president\u2019s announcement about his intention to make a decision of cannabis rescheduling within weeks,\u00a0bipartisan congressional lawmakers are urging Trump to get the job done<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014 Separately, a new political committee that shares the same treasurer as Trump\u2019s own super PAC is\u00a0pushing the president to follow through on rescheduling marijuana<\/a>, releasing an ad that highlights his previous endorsement of the reform on the campaign trail.<\/p>\n The treasurer of the\u00a0PAC, Charles Gantt, is the same person named as treasurer of Trump\u2019s political committee, MAGA Inc., which\u00a0recently reported receiving $1 million from a marijuana industry PAC<\/a>\u00a0that\u2019s supported by multiple major cannabis companies.<\/p>\n That committee, the American Rights and Reform PAC, separately released ads in May that\u00a0attacked former President Joe Biden\u2019s marijuana policy record<\/a>\u00a0in an apparent attempt to push Trump to go further on the issue.<\/p>\n Separately, a post that recently circulated on social media appears to show that MAGA Inc., which is also referred to as also called Make America Great Again Inc., itself created an ad that touts Trump\u2019s support for \u201ccommonsense reform\u201d such as removing cannabis from Schedule I of the CSA and letting states set their own policies.<\/p>\n The ad ends with the narrator saying \u201cDonald Trump for president,\u201d however, indicating that it may have been prepared prior to the 2024 election.<\/p>\n The owner of the major gardening supply company Scotts Miracle-Gro recently said Trump has told him directly \u201cmultiple times\u201d since taking office that\u00a0he intends to see through the marijuana rescheduling process<\/a>.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s former acting head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) also recently predicted that the administration\u00a0will soon \u201cdig in\u201d to the state-federal marijuana policy conflict<\/a>, emphasizing the need to \u201celiminate confusion, not create it\u201d amid the rescheduling push.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Terrence Cole, who was sworn in last month as the new administrator of the DEA,\u00a0declined to include rescheduling on a list of \u201cstrategic priorities\u201d<\/a>\u00a0the agency that instead focused on anti-trafficking enforcement, Mexican cartels, the fentanyl supply chain, drug-fueled violence, cryptocurrency, the dark web and a host of other matters.<\/p>\n That\u2019s despite the fact that Cole said during a confirmation hearing in April that\u00a0examining the government\u2019s pending marijuana rescheduling proposal would be \u201cone of my first priorities\u201d after taking office<\/a>.<\/p>\n Last week, former White House Press Secretary\u00a0Sean Spicer predicted that Trump would not legalize marijuana<\/a>, though that is a separate issue from the current rescheduling proposal under consideration.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, a strategic consulting and research firm associated with Trump\u2014Fabrizio, Lee & Associates, LLC\u2014conducted a survey of registered voters that showed\u00a0a majority of Republicans back a variety of cannabis reforms<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meanwhile in Indiana, a state-created study committee in 2023 recommended that lawmakers authorize a psilocybin pilot program<\/a>\u00a0to research psychedelic-assisted therapy for mental health during this year\u2019s legislative session, advising that \u201cthe Indiana General Assembly take an approach that strikes a balance between access, research, and prudence.\u201d<\/p>\n Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Indiana GOP Governor Says Federal Marijuana Rescheduling Under Trump Could Add \u2018Fire\u2019 To Legalization Push In His State<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The Republican governor of Indiana says that, if President Donald Trump moves forward on federally rescheduling marijuana, the national reform could add \u201ca little bit of fire\u201d to the local push for cannabis legalization in his state. But at the same time, a GOP U.S. senator who represents Indiana isContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":82736,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82735"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82735"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82737,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82735\/revisions\/82737"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Indiana GOP Governor Says Federal Marijuana Rescheduling Under Trump Could Add \u2018Fire\u2019 To Legalization Push In His State<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"