INDIANAPOLIS — Two bills have been introduced in the 2026 Indiana legislative session to bring legal marijuana to the Hoosier state.
The idea isn’t new — advocates have been trying for decades to get medical marijuana legalized — and every neighboring state has some form of legal weed.
But Hoosier lawmakers have resisted the idea, citing federal law that had marijuana listed in the same category as heroin and ecstasy. That could change after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to reclassify cannabis at a much lower level, in the same category as testosterone or Tylenol with codeine.
The question is, will the change in federal law sway state lawmakers?
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Hoosier veterans have been at the front in the fight to get medical marijuana legalized in the state of Indiana.
Jeff Staker, from Hoosier Veterans for Medical Cannabis, went to the Indiana Statehouse to deliver a petition to the governor in favor of creating an Indiana Cannabis Compliance Commission. He said the time is right to make the change.
“We’ve had so many summer studies in the past,” Staker said. “We’ve seen how other states have done it — the good, the bad, the ugly — and we think that Indiana can do it right.”
Jimmy Giordano joined Staker. He is a former police officer and Army veteran who says legalizing medical marijuana is the right thing to do for veterans and all Hoosiers.
“Cannabis has never killed anyone,” Giordano said. “It’s time to get a medical marijuana program here in Indiana. It no longer passes the reasonable person test to have it illegal here.”
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Two Indiana state representatives have introduced bills to create a path to legal marijuana in the state of Indiana. But the bills take different approaches to the issue:
One thing neither bill does is create a government agency to regulate the cannabis industry. Each of the neighboring states created an agency after legalizing weed, including Kentucky, which only legalized medical marijuana.
Both bills have been referred to the House Committee on Courts and Criminal Code, though neither has had a hearing scheduled yet.
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