Indiana Republican legislators have been more emboldened to discuss marijuana legislation — with a Republican Senator recently announcing he will propose legislation in the 2027 session to legalize medical marijuana — because of shifts at the federal and state level, experts say.
State Sen. Mike Bohacek, R-Michiana Shores, announced Monday that he has started to work on legislation for the 2027 session to create parameters for marijuana use in a medical capacity and establish a tax rate and policy for sale and distribution of medical marijuana.
“In light of the governor’s openness to consider legislation regarding the legalization of marijuana, we need to consider a feasible marijuana policy that would be the most helpful to Hoosiers and the economy,” Bohacek said in a statement. “The use of medical marijuana has been proven to be beneficial for some medical disorders and could help people throughout the state who are suffering find some relief.”
The proposed legislation comes after the federal government reclassified state-licensed medical marijuana as a Schedule III substance with a moderate to low potential for physical dependence and a high potential for psychological dependence and accepted medical uses under the Controlled Substance Act, according to the statement.
Bohacek said his legislation would include parameters around the implementation and use of medical marijuana “to ensure it’s being properly regulated and distributed by Hoosier healthcare professionals.”
“There are plenty of benefits medical marijuana can have, not only in a healthcare capacity, but also on our economy. Indiana has already allowed the sale of delta-8 THC and other similar cannabinoids, so creating a tax policy is a logical next step in expanding the use of THC products. There is potential to bring in millions of dollars in tax revenue every year,” Bohacek said.
Bohacek said his legislation “would not take away from the safety standards that would need to be established to keep Hoosiers safe,” by updating the state impairment laws, defining impairment with an established blood concentration, and creating training for police officers to identify impairment by THC.
“This proposed legislation would not legalize the use of recreational marijuana. Many of our state’s current laws regarding the use of marijuana would remain in place, with some adjustments to account for those who may have medical exemptions,” Bohacek said.
Jennifer Oliva, a professor of law at Indiana University Bloomington, said 41 states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana. The nine states that haven’t legalized medical marijuana have two things in common: a Republican-led legislature and no ballot initiative process for voters to potentially decide on marijuana legalization, Oliva said.
Indiana Democrats and veterans’ organizations have been pushing the legislature to legalize marijuana in some form since about 1996 when California legalized medical marijuana, Oliva said. After that, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, and California began to successfully pass legislation that included legalizing recreational marijuana use, she said.
Under President Barack Obama’s administration, the federal government established a policy — not a law — that if people are following their states’ marijuana laws, then the federal government won’t get involved, Oliva said.
In President Donald Trump’s first administration, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he wouldn’t follow the marijuana policy laid out by the Obama administration but that didn’t occur, Oliva said.
President Joe Biden took actions to down-schedule cannabis at the federal level, Oliva said. In his second term, Trump has issued an executive order reclassifying state-licensed medical marijuana as a less-dangerous drug, she said.
In Indiana, the Republican party has likely considered that “it’s dead last” in legalizing medical marijuana, the potential to increase tax revenue for the state, and shifts from the federal and state governments — including Gov. Mike Braun publicly stating he’s open to considering medical marijuana — when deciding to create medical marijuana legislation, Oliva said.
The main reason the Indiana GOP has stated it is against legalizing marijuana in any form is because it isn’t legal on the federal level, Oliva said.
“That kind of justification, just pure federal illegality, is no longer going to be a powerful talking point,” Oliva said. “They have lost one of their major talking points.”
Indiana GOP politicians have also brought up safety and potency concerns with legalizing marijuana, Oliva said. The way to address those concerns is to regulate the sale of marijuana, she said.
As Bohacek proposes legislation for medical marijuana, Oliva said it will likely be met with some resistance, but the shift at the federal level will likely help the bill pass.
Assuming the bill passes in the 2027 session, though some bills take a few sessions to pass, the earliest Indiana would have legalized medical marijuana would be in about 5 years, Oliva said. It would take time to establish growers, agencies to monitor the sale, and how to distribute the marijuana, among other things, she said.
“The problem in Indiana right now is … to get local access to cannabis, for any given reason, medical or otherwise, (you) have to trust the black market dealer and the product is unregulated and I think that’s really dangerous,” Oliva said.
Former state senator Karen Tallian, who is currently the Indiana Democratic Party chairwoman, said she filed her first piece of marijuana legislation, to establish a study committee to review marijuana policy and criminal penalties, in 2011.
To her surprise, Tallian said that piece of legislation passed the Senate.
“Nothing blew me away faster than when I put that study committee through the Senate and they actually voted ‘yes’,” Tallian said. “When (I was asked), ‘Who is your House sponsor?’ I was speechless and everyone in the room was laughing.”
Ultimately, the study committee was established, Tallian said, and she recalled talking a lot about the penalties for possession of marijuana. Tallian said those conversations later became parts of Indiana law, she said.
From the 2011 session through her retirement from the legislature in 2021, Tallian said she filed many pieces of marijuana legislation, including the decriminalization of marijuana. Nearly every session she served, Tallian said she filed a bill to legalize medical marijuana.
“(The medical marijuana bill) wasn’t getting a hearing, but what it did get was attention and the fact that somebody was willing to say the word marijuana out loud in the Statehouse,” Tallian said.
Tallian said she would also try to file amendments to related bills to address marijuana, for example decriminalizing marijuana in a bill addressing criminal penalties, but the Republican leadership would shoot down her amendments arguing they weren’t germane to the bill.
“The Republican leadership never wanted to put its senators on the line for a vote because it was so popular and they knew some of their folks would vote ‘no’ but get a lot of grief for it at home. So, they kept it from coming to a vote,” Tallian said.
Indiana Republicans are likely looking into legalizing medical marijuana because of the shifts at the federal and state level around medical marijuana, Tallian said. Another factor, Tallian said, is that Indiana is in the minority of states that haven’t legalized medical marijuana.
“Why now? My answer is why not 15 years ago?” Tallian said. “We’re past due.”
Tallian served in the legislature under three Republican governors, all of whom opposed marijuana legislation in different ways, she said. Gov. Mitch Daniels laughed softly when she approached him about marijuana legalization but said that it is up to the legislature.
Gov. Mike Pence told Tallian that marijuana legalization wouldn’t happen while he was governor, she said. Gov. Eric Holcomb didn’t want to talk about it and said he’d follow guidance from the federal government, Tallian said.
“I find it a little bit amusing that 15 years later Gov. Braun thinks maybe it’s time to think about it,” Tallian said.
Tallian said she’s not surprised that Bohacek is proposing the legislation to legalize medical marijuana because he seemed to privately support her marijuana legislation. Bohacek’s district is also close to Michigan, which has legalized recreational and medicinal marijuana, so he likely wants to keep marijuana tax revenue in Indiana, she said.
But, legalizing medical marijuana was the first step many states took more than 15 years ago to start the process of legalizing marijuana on a larger scale, Tallian said.
“We are so far past that that a medical marijuana bill now seems really retro,’ Tallian said. “We all know that the thing oughta just be regulated and made legal. That’s what everyone is doing.”
The one benefit of being near last to legalize medical marijuana is that the legislature can look to other states to see how their programs worked and what adjustments, if any, had to be made, Tallian said.
“We can learn from the rest of the nation,” Tallian said.
