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Indiana Democratic lawmakers came up with a crafty way to force a House vote on marijuana legalization on Thursday after Republican leadership has blocked the issue from being considered in session after session, though the chamber ultimately rejected the reform.

The House took up Senate Bill 20legislation concerning rules for businesses that sell alcohol and hemp productson second reading. Part of what the measure would do is create a regulatory distinction for craft hemp products that could be marketed to adults 21 and older.

Rep. Justin Moed (D) tried to expand the bill with an amendment proposing to strike language defining hemp as cannabis containing no more than 0.3 percent THC by dry weight, which is also the federal definition of legal hemp.

By removing that language, the legislation would have effectively served as a vehicle for marijuana legalization, simply replacing the regulations for the sale of craft hemp, including flower, with cannabis of any THC level.

The amendment failed, however, in a 58-33 vote.

Weve had a really hard time getting an up-or-down vote on the issue, Moed told Marijuana Moment in a phone interview on Thursday. So the way it was drafted was done in a way that they would not be able to use the rules to prevent us from having to vote on it, which is what theyve been doing up to this point.

We had to just basically expand what they were doing with craft hemp, as opposed to doing a direct legalization bill or amendment dealing with that because they would just rule it out of order and prevent us from having an up-or-down vote, he explained.

Six Republicans joined all but one Democrat in supporting the amendment, the representative noted.

Time and time again, we are blocked from casting a vote on cannabis reform in IN. Today, thanks to some creativity from House Dems, we finally got a vote, Rep. Blake Johnson (D) said in a Twitter post on Thursday. If you want to know who is actually for and who is against cannabis in Indiana, the record is now clear.

Advancing marijuana reform has proved challenging in the Indiana legislature, where Republicans hold supermajorities in both chambers.

A bill to decriminalize possession of up to two ounces of cannabis received a hearing in February, but its not expected to move any further this session.

Measures to legalize and regulate adult-use marijuana were pre-filed for the 2023 session, but they have not received committee consideration yet.

Rep. Cindy Ziemke (R) said late last year that she planned to introduce a legalization bill, but the then-assistant majority caucus chair resigned at the end of the last session.

At the beginning of the year, former Indiana Sen. Jim Merritt (R) recognized the challenges of pushing the issue forward in the legislature and advocated for legislation to at least form a commission tasked with studying legalization.

Marijuana Moment is tracking more than 1,000 cannabis, psychedelics and drug policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they dont miss any developments.Learn more about our marijuana bill tracker and become a supporter on Patreon to get access.

Even if a legalization bill did make it out of the conservative legislature, it would likely face resistance from Gov. Eric Holcomb (R), who said earlier this year that he cant support the reform as long as it remains federally prohibited.

That said, hes expressed support for expanding marijuana research and some level of openness to simple decriminalization.

Moed said that Democrats would continue to work to advance marijuana reform, and hed support having a conversation about starting with decriminalization if Republicans were willing to take it up seriously.

I think those of us in the Democratic caucus, we believe we need to take action in some wayand were open, certainly, to whatever compromises and negotiating we have to do to get the ball move forward, he said. But we certainly just dont believe that people who are seeking medical relief or have very low amounts of cannabis product for whatever reason whether its mental health or veteransno one should be a criminal for doing that.

I think that this today was an effort to try to kind of give those people a voice in the legislature because its been stifled up to this point, he said. And, unfortunately, when put to a full vote, even a lot of people who said they were for it didnt take the vote.

Major Alcohol Association Executives Urge Industry To Support Efforts To Legalize Marijuana

Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.

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Indiana Democrat Forces Marijuana Legalization Vote In House, But ... - Marijuana Moment