Three out of four neighbors agree: marijuana is profitable
By STU CLAMPITT
news@readthereporter.com
After the November vote in Ohio, three of Indiana’s four neighboring states now have legalized and decriminalized cannabis products for both recreational and medicinal use.
Last month, the state legislature formed an interim study committee and members met to discuss important topics relevant to the future of our state, including cannabis legalization. No recommendation was given from the committee to move forward on the topic.
Stash Ventures LLC is a cannabis company based in Michigan with corporate offices in Fishers. Stash reached out to The Reporter to discuss what could happen if Indiana lawmakers vote for legalization in the near future.
Chief Legal and Strategy Officer Katie Wiley told The Reporter the state of Michigan is receiving $3 billion in revenue 2023, with direct impact to the state around $300 million.
Stash has a store on the north side of the Indiana-Michigan state line that has recorded $2 million in revenue directly attributable to people with Indiana driver licenses.
“We have been very active in trying to progress legislation in the state of Indiana,” Wiley said. “CEO Scott Moorehead and I have been actively advocating to bring a regulated market to the state of Indiana. We’ve worked with political leaders one on one. We’ve met with caucus leaders. I’ve participated in three rounds of testimony at the Statehouse over the past two years, both on interim study commissions and then in response to last year’s decriminalization bill.”
Wiley said Stash Ventures commissioned a research study on public opinion of legalized cannabis a few years ago, which Wiley said demonstrated full support within the state on both sides of the aisle. The support she reported has not translated into legalization in Indiana, however.
“We’ve done a lot of work behind the scenes to try to influence the 13 cannabis-related bills that have appeared in the General Assembly last session,” Wiley said. “That was more than any in prior years, obviously. But our goal is really to further the conversation. Even if there is disagreement or discourse, having an open dialogue as to what the concerns are, we are absolutely open to that conversation.”
According to Wiley, Democrats in both chambers are more active in lawmaking related to this issue.
“The Republicans are coming a little bit slower, but they are doing a diligent job trying to get educated,” Wiley said. “I would say that leadership in both the House and the Senate have been adverse [sic] to any kind of conversation around policymaking for legalized cannabis.”
Wiley said the comment she makes most often to lawmakers is that cannabis is already here in the state of Indiana. It’s just not regulated.
The particular type of regulation Stash is advocating for, however, would not include medicinal use.
“We’ve advocated to lawmakers to not go the medicinal first, then adult use route that other states have,” Wiley said. “The one benefit of coming later in the list of states to legalize this is we can learn from what other states have done. And so what we have proposed in our regulatory environment is to go with an adult use-only policy, but to do the standards of the adult use testing at the medical level.”
While Wiley did talk about the benefit to the millions of people who suffer from chronic pain, stress, anxiety, and PTSD who could be helped by cannabis products, the position she – and by extension Stash – is taking is that Indiana should not legalize for medicinal use first as other states did.
“Our job right in this policymaking phase, or after it’s legal in the business phase, is to make sure that we’re keeping people safe so that it is tested, that it is free of chemical and microorganisms and all of the other things that our local drug dealers frankly don’t have to comply with,” Wiley said. “We want responsible legislation that does have a conversation around safety. It does have a conversation around how and who can get their hands on it. We want to protect teens and children and would approve of a regulatory landscape that navigates advertising, tamper-free products, and all of those things. But none of that can happen until it’s regulated.”
The Reporter had to press a bit for clarity on this point.
If marijuana becomes legal and regulated in Indiana, but it is regulated for adult use and the law does not also contain a medicinal component, then the people who would derive health benefits from it will be forced to pay out-of-pocket rather than having insurance help.
“You’re right,” Wiley said. “This wouldn’t be an insured product. I suppose that is something that they could deal with in the regulation if that is something that they wanted to provide.”
If marijuana is legalized under the terms that Stash advocates for, then Hoosiers who need it for medical reasons would have to pay out-of-pocket for it.