The debate was not over the bill itself, but an amendment to House Bill 1390. The amendment would ban billboards in Indiana from advertising for marijuana which is illegal in the Hoosier State.
The debate didn’t center around whether marijuana should be legalized in Indiana. What evolved was a debate around what should be allowed to be advertised on billboards in Indiana and whether those ads are protected by the First Amendment.
The bill’s author, State Representative Jim Pressel (R-District 20) testified about the number of billboards he sees in his home county that advertise for marijuana dispensaries just over the state line.
“We got billboards all over the place that say, ‘Come to my store and buy this,'” Pressel explained.
“Anybody that thinks people are going to go buy marijuana because of an outdoor billboard is living in another world,” Blair Englehart, with the Englehart Group, told lawmakers on the committee.
“Anybody have one of these?” Ron Braunmeyer with the Outdoor Advertising Association of Indiana asked the committee, while holding up his cell phone.
One witness with the state’s largest billboard company, Lamar told lawmakers he’d be willing to sit down and talk about making sure the billboards are placed at a certain distance from schools and parks, like he said already happens with billboards advertising alcohol.
