Title: State urged to legalize marijuana

source:nwi.com

Excerpt: Reducing or eliminating penalties for minor marijuana possession and legalizing industrial hemp production could add more than $250 million a year to Indiana's bottom line.

Excerpt: According to economic impact estimates presented Thursday to a legislative committee studying the state's marijuana laws, decriminalization would save up to $200 million a year in reduced police, court and prison expenses, while legalizing and taxing marijuana could bring in $50 million of new sales tax revenue.

Excerpt: In addition, lawyers and academic experts testified to the selective prosecution of many marijuana possession cases in Indiana, while others spoke of the new jobs and tax revenue that would come by having farmers plant industrial hemp, a form of marijuana that can be turned into everything from clothing to diesel fuel.
State Sen. Brent Steele, R-Bedford, the committee chairman, said he purchased a hemp shirt on a lark last summer and after wearing it repeatedly it's still soft, wrinkle-free and "the best shirt I ever bought."