Indiana GOP Governor Says Federal Marijuana Rescheduling Under Trump Could Add ‘Fire’ To Legalization Push In His State
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The Republican governor of Indiana says that, if President Donald Trump moves forward on federally rescheduling marijuana, the national reform could add “a little bit of fire” to the local push for cannabis legalization in his state.
But at the same time, a GOP U.S. senator who represents Indiana is doubling down on his opposition to reform.
Gov. Mike Braun (R)—who said earlier this year that he’s “amenable” to medical cannabis legalization, while expressing reservations about broader reform—said during a news conference on Tuesday that he thinks rescheduling under the Trump administration could move the needle in Indiana’s conservative legislature.
“I think you can kind of extrapolate what’s happened over the last five to seven years if you’re going to want to try to gauge what may happen over the next few years,” Braun said, as The Indianapolis Star reported. “So I think [Trump’s comment] probably adds a little more fuel to the fire in terms of the speed with which it might occur.”
The president didn’t explicitly say he intends to direct a reclassification of marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) at a press conference on Monday—but he acknowledged the need for a review and said a decision would be made in the coming weeks.
On the campaign trail, Trump did endorse rescheduling, as well as cannabis industry banking access and a Florida legalization ballot initiative, but this marked the first time he’s publicly spoken about the issue since taking office in January.
Getting legalization enacted in Indiana would be a tall task, as GOP leadership in the legislature has made clear it’s not interested in ending prohibition altogether.
And one member of the state’s congressional delegation, Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN), expressed opposition to the state-level reform following Trump’s remarks.
“President Trump has been honest about it, that when it comes to marijuana, he said very clearly we shouldn’t smell it on the streets. You have a lot of states that have legalized it. It’s caused even more crime and issues,” Banks said. “I hope Indiana is never a state that legalizes marijuana, by the way.”
The senator acknowledged that there is likely to be “further conversation” about the issue.
“I know at the Statehouse there’s been conversation about legalizing marijuana in the state of Indiana,” he said. “I hope that doesn’t happen.”
The governor, for his part, hasn’t entirely ruled out the idea of adult-use legalization.
“When it comes to recreational, I’ve been clear that that has a need for further discussion. We see in some states they’ve not been happy with the results of it,” he said in January.
He also pointed out that Indiana is “now surrounded by four states, at least two of which have the entire spectrum legalized when it comes to recreational.”
Braun has previously said that “it’s probably time” to allow access to therapeutic cannabis among patients in the state. Those comments came alongside a poll indicating that nearly 9 in 10 Indiana adults (87 percent) support marijuana legalization.
Top Republicans in the legislature, however, have openly opposed marijuana reform.
“It’s no secret that I am not for this,” Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray (R) said during a panel at a law firm event in Indianapolis in December. “I don’t have people coming to me with really compelling medical cases as to why it’s so beneficial. And any state that I’ve seen pass medical marijuana is essentially passing recreational marijuana.”
House Speaker Todd Huston (R), meanwhile, doubted any medical benefits associated with marijuana, calling the substance “a deterrent to mental health.” He and others suggested that lawmakers supportive of the reform merely want to boost state revenue.
When Senate Minority Leader Greg Taylor (D) said he felt Indiana was in fact falling behind other nearby states that have already legalized medical marijuana, Huston shot back: “If we are behind on having fewer people using an addictive substance, I don’t know, I’m OK with that.”
A number of marijuana reform bills have been introduced for the 2025 session, including one—from Reps. Jim Lucas (R) and Shane Lindauer (R)—that would legalize medical marijuana for people with “serious medical conditions as determined by their physician.”
For what it’s worth, a former GOP congressman who Trump initially nominated to serve as U.S. attorney general during the current term is renewing his call for marijuana rescheduling—saying the “game is over for Democrats at the ballot box” if the president moves forward on the reform.
Under the rescheduling proposal that was initiated under the Biden administration and now sits before the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), marijuana would be moved to Schedule III of the CSA. That wouldn’t federally legalize the plant, but it would free up licensed cannabis retailers to access banking services and help facilitate research.
Meanwhile, following the president’s announcement about his intention to make a decision of cannabis rescheduling within weeks, bipartisan congressional lawmakers are urging Trump to get the job done.
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Separately, a new political committee that shares the same treasurer as Trump’s own super PAC is pushing the president to follow through on rescheduling marijuana, releasing an ad that highlights his previous endorsement of the reform on the campaign trail.
The treasurer of the PAC, Charles Gantt, is the same person named as treasurer of Trump’s political committee, MAGA Inc., which recently reported receiving $1 million from a marijuana industry PAC that’s supported by multiple major cannabis companies.
That committee, the American Rights and Reform PAC, separately released ads in May that attacked former President Joe Biden’s marijuana policy record in an apparent attempt to push Trump to go further on the issue.
Separately, a post that recently circulated on social media appears to show that MAGA Inc., which is also referred to as also called Make America Great Again Inc., itself created an ad that touts Trump’s support for “commonsense reform” such as removing cannabis from Schedule I of the CSA and letting states set their own policies.
The ad ends with the narrator saying “Donald Trump for president,” however, indicating that it may have been prepared prior to the 2024 election.
The owner of the major gardening supply company Scotts Miracle-Gro recently said Trump has told him directly “multiple times” since taking office that he intends to see through the marijuana rescheduling process.
Trump’s former acting head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) also recently predicted that the administration will soon “dig in” to the state-federal marijuana policy conflict, emphasizing the need to “eliminate confusion, not create it” amid the rescheduling push.
Meanwhile, Terrence Cole, who was sworn in last month as the new administrator of the DEA, declined to include rescheduling on a list of “strategic priorities” the agency that instead focused on anti-trafficking enforcement, Mexican cartels, the fentanyl supply chain, drug-fueled violence, cryptocurrency, the dark web and a host of other matters.
That’s despite the fact that Cole said during a confirmation hearing in April that examining the government’s pending marijuana rescheduling proposal would be “one of my first priorities” after taking office.
Last week, former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer predicted that Trump would not legalize marijuana, though that is a separate issue from the current rescheduling proposal under consideration.
Meanwhile, a strategic consulting and research firm associated with Trump—Fabrizio, Lee & Associates, LLC—conducted a survey of registered voters that showed a majority of Republicans back a variety of cannabis reforms.
Meanwhile in Indiana, a state-created study committee in 2023 recommended that lawmakers authorize a psilocybin pilot program to research psychedelic-assisted therapy for mental health during this year’s legislative session, advising that “the Indiana General Assembly take an approach that strikes a balance between access, research, and prudence.”
Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.
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