INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana lawmakers could ban all marijuana advertising within state lines under an amendment adopted Monday in a transportation-focused committee. It goes beyond the billboard-specific prohibition taken in a Senate panel last week.
Rep. Jim Pressel, R-Rolling Prairie, said his community is “inundated” with billboards advertising illegal marijuana. The district is near Michigan, which has legalized it. “My constituents receive up to two, what would look like political mailers, a week advertising an illegal substance” at dispensaries in nearby New Buffalo, Michigan. Pressel chairs the House Roads and Transportation Committee.
He commandeered Senate Bill 73, dealing with utility trailer sales, for an amendment outlawing the advertising of marijuana and other drugs on Indiana’s list of Schedule I controlled substances. Indiana’s attorney general could sue for injunctions, civil penalties of up to $15,000, and “reasonable costs” incurred throughout the investigation and lawsuit.
The ban would take effect upon the bill’s passage. Advertising from contracts entered into or renewed before the approval date would be exempt.
Pressel told reporters that the panel “deals with billboard issues all the time,” but acknowledged that his amendment would also affect mailers, truck adverts, television, and more. It also has the potential to impact online activity.
Read more of Leslie Bonilla Muñiz’s story for Indiana Capital Chronicle and Local News Digital, here.
