Hoosier advocates for medical marijuana legalization meet with state agency leaders

INDIANAPOLIS — On Friday morning, the focus of a meeting at the Indiana Department of Veterans Affairs was medical marijuana.

The conversation between Hoosier Veterans for Medical Cannabis, Indiana NORML and state agency leaders was planned about a month ago, but it came one day after the U.S. acting attorney general signed an order reclassifying state-licensed medical marijuana as a less-dangerous drug.

Medical marijuana was reclassified from a Schedule I drug — a high abuse, no medical-benefit category with drugs such as heroin and cocaine — to Schedule III — with less-addictive medication such as prescription Tylenol.

“You got to realize that a lot of our state legislators have been waiting for exactly this to happen,” veteran Jeff Staker said. “The feds have made their move, and now it’s time for Indiana to make ours. And of course, we want to do it right.”

Staker has pushed for medical marijuana legislation for 10 years now, arguing it’s a safer alternative to opioid painkillers veterans are prescribed for PTSD and chronic pain.

The advocacy groups met with the director of IDVA and the chief of policy to the Secretary of Health and Family Services. It was at the request of the governor, Staker said, after he sent a letter earlier in 2026. The groups have previously met with Indiana Secretary of Business Affairs Mike Speedy.

The focus of the conversation was the Indiana Cannabis Standards Initiative, something advocates created as a regulatory framework. They’ve long proposed a Cannabis Compliance Commission to oversee regulation.

“Some of their questions were just really around the actionable, the follow through, not just a lot of our ideas, but how do we want those to be implemented? You know, how, what does that look like in practice?” said Lucy Luman, with Indiana NORML. “What that would look like in terms of even financial you know, how would it be structured in that way? What would the compliance commission look like? How would we structure that commission?”

Proposed legislation on the topic rarely gets a committee hearing in the Indiana Statehouse.

Gov. Mike Braun weighed in on the issue at a March event. According to State Affairs, the governor said when it comes to legalizing medical cannabis in Indiana, he was “kind of agnostic on that issue.”  

Braun reportedly went on to say, “But when you’ve got four states surrounding you, you’re probably going to have to address it.”

That’s not unlike what Braun told 13News two years ago when he ran for office.

“We need to address it in some fashion because it’s now surrounding us,” Braun said in an interview during his campaign to be governor.

Braun’s comments in March were made just days before Hoosier Veterans for Medical Cannabis received an email from HFS to schedule a meeting.

The Indiana Pharmacy Association told 13News the federal order makes no immediate change in the state.

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita’s office said they are reviewing the order. 13News reached out to Braun, as well, but didn’t hear back.

On Thursday, April 23, a spokesperson for the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency said the reclassification topic has been added as a discussion item for the May 11, 2026 board of pharmacy meeting.

13News reached out to the IDVA and HFS leaders at the meeting to learn any next steps they’ll be taking after the informational gathering with the advocacy groups but did not hear back.

But advocates are hopeful and called it a positive meeting.

“It tells you that the governor’s really taken a close look at this, and I’m hoping that our organization and others can get in the governor’s office and have that discussion with him and brainstorm further,” Staker said.

“A lot of the challenges that our legislators had previously have been dismissed with this rescheduling,” Luman said. “Are we close? I think we are now more so than ever.”