In March 2018, Indiana joined  17 states that have passed laws only allowing the use of cannabidiol, or CBD, extract.

To IU junior and Indiana resident Abbey Kern, using CBD oil has been an essential method of treating her depression and anxiety. “I started using CBD for anxiety and it really helped a lot,” Abbey says. “I usually use the liquid drop form and just use it under my tongue or throughout the day.”

Abbey is not alone in using CBD products to treat depression and anxiety. Health experts say the product also is good for treating body pains among its many other health benefits. The owner of the Bell Family Dispensary in Bloomington, Jared Bell, explained the reasons people use CBD. “A majority of our customers are 65 or older,” Bell says. “We have been getting more attention from a younger crowd. A lot of the older generation take it for pain, such as arthritis pain. However, the younger crowd takes it for anxiety or stress.”

The legislation came after many Indiana constituents pushed for CBD to be legalized. Indiana State Representative for the 61st District Matt Pierce (D) was a co-sponsor of the legislation. “The only reason why CBD was approved as legal in Indiana was because we heard from many many many constituents who said that they were using CBD oil already and they had been getting good medical relief from it,” Pierce says. “That message was loud and clear from constituents across the state, so that’s what made it fairly easy to get the bill passed that would make CBD oil, which does not have THC to the level that will get you high, legal.”

Representative Pierce also explained the concerns that were raised while legalizing the product, which led to the THC limit of all CBD products sold to be 0.3%. “The attorney general and the prosecutors…felt that if CBD oil were legalized that what would happen is people would put higher amounts of  THC in it and basically try to make the fact that they’re selling an illegal drug, at this point marijuana, disguised as CBD oil,” Pierce says. “That was really the only debate: How do you create a marketplace for CBD without making it easy for it to basically be a vehicle to hide the sale of marijuana or THC based products?”

The legalization of CBD raises questions of whether or not marijuana legalization in Indiana will soon follow. According to Representative Pierce, we shouldn’t expect much. “What the governor has done to avoid taking a direct position on medical marijuana while at the same time freezing the issue in the legislature is that he announced that he would not support signing legislation to legalize medical marijuana so long as the federal government listed it as a scheduled narcotic,” Pierce says. “What that means then is the Indiana legislators can use that excuse, ‘Oh well, the federal government hasn’t legalized it yet so we can’t override the federal government.'”

Jared Bell thinks otherwise. “I like to use a snowball analogy. As a snowball rolls down the hill, it gets bigger and bigger. As it’s pushed for legalization…I see Indiana jumping on board in about a year and a half,” Bell says.

Recent news in Congress may prove Bell right. The House passed a bill on November 20th that, if passed by the Senate, would legalize marijuana on the federal level.

Statistics show that Indiana residents support medicinal cannabis use much more than they do recreational cannabis use, with 73% of Indiana residents supporting the medicinal use of marijuana and 39% supporting the recreational use of marijuana.

Source: Indianapolis Monthy

Although the path to marijuana legalization may seem long, with recent decisions on the federal level on the matter the path may be shorter than we think.