By: Stan Maddux
Marijuana dispensaries in Berrien County and elsewhere would no longer be allowed to advertise their products in Indiana under legislation proposed in that state, where pot remains illegal.
Such a ban would include the many billboards along Indiana highways that advertise marijuana dispensaries in areas like Buchanan, Niles, and New Buffalo Township.
“It’s definitely a problem, having those advertisements, and they’re a little bit annoying,” said Indiana State Representative Jim Pressel, a republican from Rolling Prairie.
Pressel said what the decision will boil down to is whether a product still against the law in Indiana should be promoted here even though it’s legal to purchase in Michigan and other surrounding states.
“Should we be advertising it and making it look like it’s a legal here? I don’t believe that is good policy,” he said.
Lawmakers in the Indiana House of Representatives leading the effort to ban such advertising are both republicans from northern Indiana.
State Representative Tim Wesco of Osceola has submitted a bill that would prohibit any form of marijuana dispensary advertising.
That would include pamphlets and other literature from marijuana dispensaries that many Hoosiers seem to be increasingly receiving in their mailboxes and trucks entering the state with large signs advertising marijuana.
“We need to get in front of that,” Pressel said.
Recently, there’s been a sign on the trailer of a truck regularly parking along Indiana 2 in downtown LaPorte.
The display is about a marijuana store outside the city limits of New Buffalo and the discounts offered on their products.
A separate measure specifically aimed at protecting children from exposure to such advertising was submitted by Indiana State Representative Joanna King of Middlebury.
Under her bill, advertising a product containing marijuana or a marijuana business would be prohibited on signs within 1,000 feet of a school, playground, youth program center, public park, public library and the regular route of a public school bus.
Her measure also calls for fines for violators starting at $5,000 then $10,000 for a second offense and $15,000 for each additional violation.
Both measures would allow the Indiana Attorney General’s Office to take civil action against violators to recover their expenses related to enforcement.
Those dollars would be deposited into the state’s general fund.
Each of the bills are now before the Indiana House Judiciary Committee for possible consideration.
A total ban on marijuana dispensary advertising has also been presented in the Indiana State Senate.
Pressel said it’s too early to know if the proposals will be amended as they go through the legislative process or die, but he feels some type of marijuana advertising ban “will gain some traction.”
He said it’s also unfair such advertising could be deceiving people into thinking marijuana is not against the law in Indiana until they get arrested when caught in possession of the drug purchased legally in Michigan and other states.
“We don’t need to promote it to where consumers believe it is a legal substance. I just think that is unfair to everybody. We’re addressing it. Hopefully, we’ll get it across the finish line,” he said.
Pressel also emphasized state lawmakers should carefully examine whether such advertising restrictions, if legally challenged, would hold up in court under freedom of speech protections in the U.S. Constitution before acting on the measures.
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