HANCOCK COUNTY — Recreational marijuana sales are ramping up in Michigan. In less than two weeks, it will be legal in Illinois, making it the second state bordering Indiana where adults 21 and older can legally smoke pot.

Police and prosecutors in Hancock County say that probably means more marijuana will make its way into Indiana and Hancock County. “It would seem that it’s more likely we’ll see more than we’ll see less,” Prosecutor Brent Eaton said.

But law enforcement officials have a message for anyone trying to bring pot from neighboring states: It’s still illegal in Indiana, regardless of where it’s purchased.

Six shops in Michigan, mostly in Ann Arbor, began selling marijuana for recreational use on Dec. 1. The licensed sellers opened to long lines of customers and reported about $1.6 million in sales during the first week.

Illinois starts allowing sales in January.

Nearly two-thirds of states have legalized marijuana, mainly for medical uses, even though federal health officials issued a new warning in August that smoking the drug is dangerous for adolescents, pregnant women and their developing babies.

Gov. Eric Holcomb, in an interview earlier this year with the Daily Reporter, insisted marijuana use should remain illegal in Indiana as long as the federal government classifies marijuana as a dangerous drug. A move to legalize recreational use here seems unlikely, because top lawmakers agree with him.

Eaton said he took an oath to enforce the law, one he takes seriously and intends to uphold.

“Ultimately the people of Hancock County do not want a prosecutor to become a superior legislator and arbitrarily begin to decide which parts of the code are fit to be enforced and which are not,” he said. “…It’s not the role of the prosecutor to take authority away from legislators and the governor.”

Fortville Police Chief Bill Knauer also thinks the actions in Illinois and Michigan could lead to more marijuana turning up in Indiana.

“My initial feeling is if it’s in the states bordering ours, there’s going to be more of it here,” he said, adding it will likely impact Indiana counties bordering Michigan and Illinois more than Hancock County.

And, like Eaton, he warned anyone thinking about bringing pot home from Michigan or Illinois.

“Persons caught with it will be prosecuted under the law,” Knauer said. “We’re still going to enforce marijuana laws just like we are today. Until it becomes legal in Indiana, that’s the way we’ll do it.”

McCordsville Police Chief Paul Casey doesn’t think the new laws will have much of an impact here. But he agrees it could be an issue in border counties.

Like Knauer, Casey said police will treat marijuana possession as they always have. He reminded anyone thinking of making a road trip to Illinois or Michigan that the McCordsville Police Department has a new drug-detecting K9 officer, Mattis.

“We plan on moving forward as is until laws in Indiana change,” he said.

Could that happen?

Indiana’s Republican Statehouse leaders, including Gov. Holcomb, are firmly against taking any steps in the upcoming legislative session toward following neighboring states in legalizing marijuana.

However, advocates of legalization steps say they sense growing support in Indiana — and signs exist for that.

A poll last year by Ball State University’s Bowen Center for Public Affairs found about 80% of Indiana adults favoring medical marijuana use and 40% supportive of legal recreational use, with just 16% backing the total ban.

Since then, the county prosecutor for Indianapolis has stopped pressing criminal charges against adults for possessing about one ounce or less of marijuana and officials in Lake County, which borders Chicago and is the state’s second-most populous county, are considering whether to give sheriff’s deputies the discretion to write a $50 to $250 ticket for small levels of marijuana, instead of taking someone to jail.

Marijuana legalization looms as a likely campaign issue for the 2020 statewide elections.

The three Democrats seeking to challenge Holcomb’s reelection bid — state Sen. Eddie Melton of Gary, former state health commissioner Woody Myers and tech business executive Josh Owens — all support allowing some level of marijuana use, although Myers opposes recreational sales.

One of the Legislature’s most prominent legal-marijuana advocates, Democratic Sen. Karen Tallian of Odgen Dunes, is in the 2020 attorney general’s race and plans to again file a bill to strip possible prison sentences for possession of small marijuana amounts for the legislative session that begins in early January.
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