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 20—legislation concerning rules for businesses that sell alcohol and hemp products—on 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.
“We’ve 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
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