Marijuana isn't legal in Indiana. So should advertising be legal here? Lawmakers say no
Indiana lawmakers took action on marijuana policy during the 2025 legislative session, just not in the direction Hoosiers who favor legalizing weed in the state may hope.
State lawmakers voted 81-9 on April 23 in the House and 31-19 in the Senate on April 24 to ban the advertising of marijuana products "by any medium" within Indiana. The ban language is tucked into House Bill 1390, which is generally a bill with directions for the Bureau of Motor Vehicles.
The ban applies to signs on the interstate and flyers sent to mailboxes, both types of advertising that had already been popping up in Indiana as companies in neighboring states try to entice Hoosiers to cross state lines.
The approval of the advertising ban follows a renewed push from Republicans for marijuana legalization, especially as Indiana is surrounded on its borders by states that have legalized it in some form. There were some signs of movement in that direction. A new Republican-led lobbying group, Safe and Regulated Indiana, formed earlier this year. Gov. Mike Braun on the 2024 campaign trail also signaled support for medical marijuana.
But, as they typically do at the Statehouse, the bipartisan bills filed about legalization died without movement in either chamber. The advertising ban language stuck.
Similar proposals banning advertising appeared in three different bills at the start of the legislative session: Senate Bill 166, from Republican Sen. Spencer Deery, House Bill 1327, from Republican Rep. Timothy Wesco and House Bill 1026, from Rep. Joanna King. All three bills died earlier this year after not receiving hearings in legislative committees.
Language banning marijuana advertising hopped from bill to bill at the end of the legislative session. The language was added to HB 1390 and then removed and placed in Senate Bill 73. It was later eliminated from SB 73 and then added back to HB 1390 before lawmakers signed off on the final version of that bill.
HB 1390 now heads to Braun's desk, where he can either sign or veto the bill.
Contact IndyStar state government and politics reporter Brittany Carloni at brittany.carloni@indystar.com. Follow her on Twitter/X @CarloniBrittany.
Sign up for our free weekly politics newsletter, Checks & Balances, curated by IndyStar political and government reporters.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana lawmakers approve marijuana advertising ban
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trading Day-London calling, stocks crawling higher
By Jamie McGeever ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - TRADING DAY Making sense of the forces driving global markets By Jamie McGeever, Markets Columnist I'm excited to announce that I'm now part of Reuters Open Interest (ROI), an essential new source for data-driven, expert commentary on market and economic trends. You can find ROI on the Reuters website, and you can follow us on LinkedIn and X. Trade tensions, policy uncertainty and shaky economic data continue to cloud the near-term outlook for world growth, but they remain on the back burner for now as investors kick off the week by pushing global stock markets higher. In my column today I look at why the dollar has depreciated significantly this year regardless of how U.S. stocks and bonds have performed. The main reason? Hedging. More on that below, but first, a roundup of the main market moves. If you have more time to read, here are a few articles I recommend to help you make sense of what happened in markets today. 1. Defying debt warnings, Republicans push forward on Trumptax agenda 2. 'Blue' euro bonds to rival Treasuries?: Mike Dolan 3. Japan to consider buying back some super-long governmentbonds, sources say 4. Wall Street, Main Street push for foreign tax rethink inU.S. budget bill 5. Auto companies 'in full panic' over rare-earthsbottleneck Today's Key Market Moves * World stocks set a new record high. The MSCI World indexrises 0.3% to 895.60 points. * Wall Street closes in the green despite a flurry of lateselling, and the S&P 500 nudges further above 6000 points. TheRussell 2000 small caps index rises most, up 0.6%. * The dollar index slips 0.25%. But the biggest declinerin global FX on Monday is the Colombian peso, down 0.7% afterthe assassination attempt on Senator Miguel Uribe, a potentialpresidential contender. * The U.S. yield curve bull steepens, snapping four sessionsof flattening, with the 2- and 3-year yields down 4 bps. Nextup, a $58 billion auction of 3-year notes on Tuesday. * Oil rises for a third day, with Brent crude climbing 1%above $67/bbl, its highest level since late April. London calling, stocks crawling higher It was a fairly quiet start to the week across global markets on Monday, with strong equity gains in Asia followed by a grind higher on Wall Street which lifted the MSCI World index to a fresh record high. The main areas of focus for investors were China's economic 'data dump' for May, then the high-level U.S.-China trade talks in London. The two are connected - the U.S. is a less important market for China than it used to be, underscored in May's trade figures from Beijing and reflected in the lack of concrete progress from the negotiations in London. China's total exports rose 4.8% in May from a year earlier but this masks a huge split between the U.S. and the rest of the world. Exports to the U.S. plunged 34.4% year-on-year in value terms, the sharpest drop since February 2020 just before the pandemic, while exports to the rest of the world rose 11.4%. Monthly data are volatile, of course, and May's figures were also distorted by tariffs. Still, U.S.-bound shipments worth $28.8 billion last month were just 9% of the total $316 billion. Economist Phil Suttle notes that is less than half the average share in the decade leading up to President Donald Trump's first trade war. The London talks are expected to continue on Tuesday. But as was the case following Trump's telephone call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday, there is little indication of a significant breakthrough, far less China bending to U.S. demands. "U.S. Treasury Secretaries who live in unbalanced economies might not want to throw barbs such as the 'most unbalanced in modern history' at China without first looking at some data," Suttle wrote on Monday. "The choice to fight an opponent should be conditioned on a clear-headed view of its strengths and weaknesses. The U.S. has done a marvelous job of (once again) deluding itself on this front," Suttle added. Still, divisions between the two countries and the threat to global supply chains are proving no barrier to rising stock markets. Japan's Nikkei and the MSCI emerging and Asia ex-Japan indexes rose around 1%, Hong Kong-listed tech stocks rose nearly 3%, and Wall Street closed in the green. Meanwhile, the dollar's trend this year of declining despite U.S. stocks and bonds rising was on full display on Monday. Wall Street closed slightly higher and Treasury yields fell as much as 5 basis points at the short end of the curve, yet the dollar slipped. Many analysts say one of the main reasons for this is non-U.S. investor hedging - more on that below. Dollar floored as investors seek that extra hedge All three major U.S. asset classes – stocks, bonds and the currency – have had a turbulent 2025 thus far, but only one has failed to weather the storm: the dollar. Hedging may be a major reason why. Wall Street's three main indices and the ICE BofA U.S. Treasury index are all slightly higher for the year to date, despite the post-'Liberation Day' volatility, while the dollar has steadily ground lower, losing around 10% of its value against a basket of major currencies and breaking long-standing correlations along the way. The dollar was perhaps primed for a fall. It's easy to forget, but only a few months ago the 'U.S. exceptionalism' narrative was alive and well, and the dollar scaling heights rarely seen in the past two decades. But that narrative has evaporated, as U.S. President Donald Trump's controversial economic policies and isolationist posture on the global stage have made investors reconsider their exposure to U.S. assets. But why is the dollar feeling the burn more than stocks or bonds? PENSION FUND-AMENTALS Non-U.S. investors often protect themselves against sharp currency fluctuations via the forward, futures or options markets. The difference now is that the risk premium being built into U.S. assets is pushing them – especially equity holders – to hedge their dollar exposure more than they have in the past. Foreign investors have long hedged their bond exposure, with dollar hedge ratios traditionally around 70% to 100%, according to Morgan Stanley, as currency moves can easily wipe out modest bond returns. But non-U.S. equity investors have been much more loath to pay for protection, with dollar hedge ratios averaging between 10% and 30%. This is partly because the dollar was traditionally seen as a 'natural' hedge against stock market exposure, as it would typically rise in 'risk off' periods when stocks fell. The dollar would also normally appreciate when the U.S. economy and markets were thriving – the so-called 'Dollar Smile' – giving an additional boost to U.S. equity returns in good times. A good barometer of global 'real money' investors' view on the dollar is how willing foreign pension and insurance funds are to hedge their dollar-denominated assets. Recent data on Danish funds' currency hedging is revealing. Danish funds' U.S. asset hedge ratio surged to around 75% from around 65% between February and April. According to Deutsche Bank analysts, that 10 percentage point rise is the largest two-month increase in over a decade. Anecdotal evidence suggests similar shifts are taking place across Scandinavia, the euro zone and Canada, regions where dollar exposure is also high. The $266 billion Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan reported a $6.9 billion foreign currency gain last year, mainly due to the stronger dollar. Unless the fund has increased its hedging ratio this year, it will be sitting on huge foreign currency losses. "Investors had embraced U.S. exceptionalism and were overweight U.S. assets. But now, investors are increasing their hedging," says Sophia Drossos, economist and strategist at the hedge fund Point72. And there is a lot of dollar exposure to hedge. At the end of March foreign investors held $33 trillion of U.S. securities, with $18.4 trillion in equities and $14.6 trillion in debt instruments. RIDING OUT THE STORM The dollar's malaise has upended its traditional relationships with stocks and bonds. Its generally negative correlation with stocks has reversed, as has the usually positive correlation with bonds. The divergence with Treasuries has gained more attention, with the dollar diving as yields have risen. But as Deutsche Bank's George Saravelos notes, the correlation breakdown with stocks is "very unusual". When Wall Street has fallen this year the dollar has fallen too, but at a much faster pace. And when Wall Street has risen the dollar has also bounced, but only slightly. This has led to the strongest positive correlation between the dollar and S&P 500 in years, though that's a bit deceptive, as the dollar is sharply down on the year while stocks are mildly stronger. Of course, what we could be seeing is simply a rebalancing. Saravelos estimates that global fixed income and equity managers' dollar exposure was at near record-high levels in the run-up to the recent trade war. This was a "cyclical" phenomenon over the last couple of years rather than a deep-rooted structural one based on fundamentals, meaning it could be reversed relatively quickly. But, regardless, the dollar's hedging headwind seems likely to persist. "Given the size of foreign holdings of both stocks and bonds, even a modest uptick in hedge ratios could prove a considerable FX flow," Morgan Stanley's FX strategy team wrote last month. "As long as uncertainty and volatility persist, we think that hedge ratios are likely to rise as investors ride out the storm." What could move markets tomorrow? * South Korea current account (April) * UK BRC retail sales (May) * UK employment (April) * Brazil inflation (May) * U.S. 3-year Treasury note auction Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias. (By Jamie McGeever; Editing by Nia Williams) Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
24 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Gavin Newsom finally finds a cause: taking on Trump
The Democratic governor of liberal California has welcomed Donald Trump to his state, cosied up to Conservative podcasters, and slashed healthcare provisions for illegal immigrants this year. But the reinvention of Gavin Newsom as the sort of Democrat who might be able to win back Republican voters came to a shuddering halt during a weekend of riots. With Mr Trump ordering troops onto his streets, Mr Newsom hit back, accusing the president of intentionally inflaming a difficult situation. It leaves Mr Newsom with no choice but to halt his drift Right-ward, said Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic strategist. 'If not, he loses his entire constituency,' he said. 'In other words, there's a toleration level for moving to the centre, but not when it comes to massive chaos in Los Angeles.' Mr Newsom has put himself at the front of Democrat efforts to examine how they lost the 2024 election so badly. He launched a podcast in March in which he picks the brains of leading figures in Trump world. And Mr Newsom angered liberals with the very first episode, in which he interviewed Charlie Kirk, the controversial Conservative, when he said it was unfair that transgender athletes could compete in women's sport. He also said Democrats simply could not compete with the likes of Mr Trump and Elon Musk when it came to online reach. 'We're toast,' he said. Last month, facing a budget crunch, the telegenic governor back-pedalled on a promise of healthcare for all. He announced a freeze in enrolment for undocumented adults in the state's public health insurance programme. He has also urged cities to ban encampments for homeless people, cracking down on the tent cities that have blighted so much of California. And in January, he thanked Mr Trump for federal help in rebuilding after devastating wildfires that swept through Los Angeles. 'I've been always a hard-headed pragmatist,' he told reporters recently when quizzed about his shifting positions. 'I'm not an ideologue.' That all seems a long time ago after immigration raids around Los Angeles on Friday sparked three days of riots, and an order by Mr Trump to send in 2,000 National Guard troops. Tom Homan, the president's border tsar, threatened to arrest the California governor if he got in the way. 'Come and get me, tough guy,' was Mr Newsom's pithy response on X. After Mr Trump agreed the governor should be arrested, the governor shot back saying it was 'a line we cannot cross as a nation'. Credit: MSNBC He threatened to sue the federal government for its illegal act and called the president a 'stone cold liar' for failing to bring up his plan to send the National Guard when they spoke by telephone. 'There is currently no need for the National Guard to be deployed in Los Angeles and to do so in this unlawful manner and for such lengthy period is a serious breach of state sovereignty that seems intentionally designed to inflame the situation while simultaneously depriving the state from deploying these personnel and resources where they are truly required,' he wrote in a letter. That puts him at the centre of the news headlines, said James Carville, the veteran Democratic strategist and former adviser to Bill Clinton, even if it was too early to say that the party had finally found a national figurehead to oppose Mr Trump. But he said Mr Newsom's full-blooded reaction to Mr Trump and his tsar did not mark a reversal of his shift to the Right, but were compatible with his rejection of progressive totems such as identity politics. 'I don't think we should say we can render a verdict after 48 hours, but his actions have been totally what he would expect,' he said after Mr Trump had 'invaded' his state with troops. At the same time, he added, the crackdown on illegal immigrants remained a popular part of the platform that helped Republicans reclaim the White House last year. That leaves the governor and Democrats with a fine line to straddle: taking on Mr Trump over his decision to send in troops but without being painted as soft on illegal immigration or unrest in the streets. 'I think Trump sees all kinds of trouble on the horizon,' Mr Carville said. 'What he's very good at is just doing something to dominate the news.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
24 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Democratic FTC commissioner Bedoya says he will step down
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -One of the two Democratic commissioners at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission who has challenged his firing by President Donald Trump said on Monday he was stepping down. Alvaro Bedoya said he would step down to comply with ethics rules but will remain a plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging his dismissal. "I love this work. But I'm not getting paid for it," Bedoya said. "But my number one job is to take care of my family." The FTC is currently led by three Republicans.
