INDIANA FIRST

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Indiana has been here before.

Again and again, this state has turned emerging sectors into globally relevant industries—long before anyone was sure they would work. That same pattern now sits in front of us with cannabis and hemp, and it is why an Indiana‑First, standards‑driven strategy is not just possible but logical.

Indiana’s economy is full of examples where a “small” or regional niche quietly matured into a global platform:

• Warsaw became the Orthopedic Capital of the World, home to companies like DePuy, Zimmer, and Biomet and a dense ecosystem of engineers, surgeons, and advanced manufacturers.
• South Bend, Kokomo, and Indianapolis helped launch the U.S. automotive era—taking us from wagons to gasoline cars, performance marques, and a permanent proving ground at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
• Gary’s steel complex underpinned the heavy‑industrial backbone for autos, construction, and manufacturing across the country.
• Eli Lilly grew from a local pharmacy into a global pharmaceutical leader, anchoring a life‑sciences corridor and contributing a meaningful share of Indiana’s total economic output.
• In digital infrastructure, Indiana was the birthplace of the first true online job board, when Bill Warren launched the Online Career Center in Indianapolis and helped create the modern framework for online recruiting.

And this “Indiana First” mindset has always been cultural as much as economic—nowhere clearer than in Bloomington.

Indiana University basketball is one of the purest symbols of the Indiana‑First idea.

• IU’s undefeated 1975–76 men’s basketball team stands as a national benchmark for perfection—the last Division I men’s team to go undefeated and win the national championship.
• That run didn’t just win a trophy; it set a standard. It said, very publicly, that a program from a “flyover” state could define excellence for the rest of the country.
• Layer on top of that Indiana’s tradition of producing Heisman‑level talent in football, and you get something deeper than sports success: proof that a public university in a midwestern state can compete at the absolute top of the national stage, across multiple arenas.

When Indiana fans roar “Who, who, who—HOOSIERS!” they’re not just cheering for a team. They’re voicing a long‑standing belief that this state can go first, set the bar, and dare everyone else to catch up.

That is exactly the energy the cannabis conversation needs.

Today, cannabis and hemp sit at a similar crossroads.

• Indiana already runs a regulated industrial hemp program, with farmers testing fiber, grain, and cannabinoid crops and universities building research and extension capacity.
• The state has one of the country’s strongest combinations of agriculture, advanced manufacturing, and life sciences—driven by organizations like Eli Lilly, the Warsaw orthopedic cluster, and research universities.
• At the same time, Indiana’s THC policy remains conservative, and the “full” cannabis industry structure (medical or adult‑use) has not yet been built.

That combination—real assets, cautious policy, no entrenched cannabis incumbents—is exactly what makes an Indiana‑First model possible.

Just as IU basketball once proved you could go undefeated at the highest level, Indiana now has a chance to prove you can build a cannabis economy that is clinically grounded, standards‑driven, and economically transformative from day one.

The core of the Indiana‑First idea is simple:

Before we flip the switch on a full cannabis industry, we mandate standards and align them with research, employers, and farmers.

That means:

• Standards‑first regulation
  Indiana would be the first state to require adherence to a rigorous, independent standards framework (quality, testing, worker safety, environmental practices, data and labeling) as a gateway to licensure. Instead of patchwork rules that chase problems after they appear, standards become the foundation—our version of an “undefeated season” in regulatory design.
• Employer and workforce integration
  A dedicated, industry‑specific employers’ association can ensure that labor practices, training, and career pathways are built from day one. This fits Indiana’s legacy in manufacturing and orthopedics, where skilled labor and safety standards are non‑negotiable—just like fundamentals in a championship program.
• Farmer‑centered supply chains
  Hoosier farmers become core stakeholders, not afterthought suppliers. Contracting models for hemp and future cannabis production can be structured to keep value in‑state, integrate with existing crop rotations, and drive a new agricultural renaissance rather than extractive, out‑of‑state ownership.
• Research and clinical oversight baked in
  Instead of treating research as an add‑on, Indiana can require data collection, product traceability, and clinical collaboration as part of doing business, tying the industry’s growth to measurable health and safety outcomes.

Indiana has done this before: set a standard, built around discipline and fundamentals, and then invited the rest of the country to meet it.

The boldest part of Indiana‑First is this: committing to host an FDA‑grade clinical trial in the state before or in parallel with the formal structure of the commercial cannabis industry.

Why that matters:

• Legitimacy and safety
  If at least one key product class (for example, a standardized formulation targeting pain, sleep, or spasticity) is evaluated under clinical‑trial conditions, Indiana can ground policy in evidence, not anecdotes or lobby talking points.
• Regulatory trust
  Lawmakers, regulators, and the medical community can see real data on dose, adverse events, and therapeutic benefits. That makes it far easier to design rules that protect patients and consumers while allowing innovation.
• Economic differentiation
  While other states race to open more dispensaries, Indiana can position itself as the state where cannabis is understood, measured, and integrated into serious care pathways. That attracts life‑sciences investment, not just retail dollars.
• Alignment with Indiana’s existing strengths
  Clinical trials and post‑market surveillance naturally connect to Indiana’s pharma, orthopedic, and academic infrastructure. We are not asking the state to become something new; we are asking it to extend what it already does well into a new category.

In sports terms: while other states are chasing highlight‑reel plays, Indiana is designing the system that wins in March—and stands the test of time.

Most states backed into cannabis. They legalized under pressure, then tried to retrofit standards, research, and workforce systems onto a functioning market. That path is politically noisy, operationally messy, and expensive to unwind.

Indiana has something those states do not:

• Time.
• Institutional memory of doing this right in other sectors.
• A strong base in agriculture, advanced manufacturing, and life sciences.
• A cultural history of showing the country what excellence looks like—on the factory floor, in the lab, and on the court.

If Indiana marshals its chambers of commerce, farm organizations, health systems, life‑science anchors, universities, and employers around a single question—“What does a safe, exportable, research‑driven cannabis ecosystem look like?”—it can design a model other states will study and emulate.

This is not about being “pro‑cannabis” or “anti‑cannabis.” It’s about being pro‑Indiana, pro‑evidence, and pro‑future.

The same spirit that carried an IU team through an undefeated national championship season can carry Indiana through the design of a world‑class, standards‑first cannabis ecosystem.

Who, who, who—HOOSIERS.