Never higher: Indiana in shrinking minority with marijuana prohibition
Most Americans reside in jurisdictions where the adult-use marijuana market is legally regulated. More than 85% of Americans have state-regulated access to medical cannabis products. Yet Indiana remains an island
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Never higher: Indiana in shrinking minority with marijuana prohibition
- Paul Armentano
- 19 hrs ago
Most Americans reside in jurisdictions where the adult-use marijuana market is legally regulated. More than 85% of Americans have state-regulated access to medical cannabis products. Yet Indiana remains an island of cannabis criminalization.
The ongoing enforcement of marijuana prohibition imposes significant financial and emotional costs.
Since 2018, more than 50,000 Hoosiers have been arrested for violating the state’s marijuana laws. In 2023 alone, more than 40% of all drug arrests in the state were for marijuana possession.
These arrests and prosecutions are disrupting the lives of tens of thousands of good, hard-working people, while simultaneously diverting police and prosecutorial resources away from addressing serious crimes.
It’s time to end this failed policy.
Contrary to opponents’ claims, legalizing marijuana for adults has not caused the sky to fall. Far from it. In fact, states that have legalized cannabis see improvements in their overall crime clearance rates, including improvements in law enforcement’s ability to close cases involving violent crimes.
Teen use has also steeply declined in virtually every state that has regulated the adult-use cannabis market. Compliance check data from California, Colorado, Nevada and other legal states shows that licensed marijuana retailers do not sell products to underage patrons.
National data shows a similar downward trend in youth marijuana use.
According to a nationwide analysis by the University of Michigan, marijuana use by teens fell to historic lows in 2024. Specifically, investigators determined that the percentage of eighth graders (down 32%), 10th graders (37%) and 12 graders (23%) who reported having ever consumed cannabis declined since 2014 — the year the first two states, Colorado and Washington, enacted legalization.
In short, real-world experience teaches us that regulating marijuana works; prohibiting it doesn’t.
Despite decades of criminal enforcement, the cannabis market is alive and well in Indiana. But under a policy of prohibition, this market flourishes underground — and those involved in it are largely unaccountable.
They don’t pay taxes; they don’t check IDs; and they don’t test the purity of their products.
By contrast, under a regulated system, cannabis products are available from licensed manufacturers at retail stores. Cannabis is cultivated and products are manufactured in accordance with good manufacturing practices. Products are lab-tested and labeled accordingly.
Sales are taxed and revenue is reinvested into the community. Over the past decade, retail sales of adult-use cannabis products have generated more than $15 billion in state tax revenue.
Another benefit of legalization is that it disrupts the unregulated cannabis market. According to 2023 survey data, most consumers residing in legal states say that they obtain their cannabis products from licensed establishments. By contrast, only 6% of respondents say they primarily purchased cannabis from a “dealer.”
In Canada, where marijuana sales have been regulated since 2018, nearly 70% of consumers say that they purchase cannabis from the legal market.
It’s time to stop ceding control and revenue of the marijuana market to unregulated and untaxed operators. A pragmatic regulatory framework that licenses production and sale of cannabis to adults — but continues to penalize underage sales and discourage use among minors — best reduces the risks associated with its use and commerce.
Twenty-four states and the District of Columbia currently regulate adults’ use of cannabis. No legislature has ever repealed its legalization laws. Nationwide, public support for legalization has never been higher.
This is evidence that these policies are working largely as voters and politicians intended and that they are preferable to cannabis criminalization.
According to Ball State University polling, 62% of Indiana residents support legalizing marijuana for either adult-use or medical purposes. It’s time for lawmakers to replace Indiana’s outdated and unpopular marijuana laws with policies that comport with this growing consensus.
Politicians who fail to listen do so at their own peril.
Paul Armentano is the deputy director of NORML — the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
