(NETWORK INDIANA) As the state legislature convenes today for the 2020 session one of the many big issues state lawmakers have on the agenda is marijuana, and if you should legally be allowed to use it.
It’s unlikely legislators will pass a bill legalizing pot either in recreational or medical form. But, State Sen. John Ruckleshaus (R-Indianapolis) tells Indy Politics just because the state won’t be legalizing pot this year doesn’t mean they can’t prepare for it in the future.
“It may be a good idea for the state of Indiana, with our Alcohol & Tobacco Commission, to set up the framework now,” he said. “So that if the will of the people of the state is to move forward, in either medical or recreational, we’re prepared.”
That framework would include a legal age to buy pot, who could sell it, and who could make/grow it, etc.
Ruckleshaus said Indiana is becoming an island state on the issue of legal pot with Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, and Kentucky all loosening their laws on the criminality of pot. Illinois and Michigan have flat out legalized all forms of marijuana in the last year.
Without throwing his support behind one side of the issue or the other, Ruckleshuas added the issue of pot is an evolving issue and that the state must evolve with it. State lawmakers have shown modest signs of doing just that with a bill becoming law last year that made it legal for farmers to grow hemp in Indiana.