If state lawmakers wind up legalizing marijuana as a result of recently introduced legislation, it is unlikely the move would result in more people using the illegal drug or becoming addicted, said Jake Messing, who has spent 30 years working in the field of substance abuse.
Messing, director of acute intensive services at the Lake County-based Regional Mental Health Center, said Hoosiers need only look back on the nation's failed attempt to curb alcohol consumption by outlawing it during the 1920s and 1930s.
"Making something illegal does not really reduce the amount of usage and dependency," he said.
Yet legalization would likely affect the addiction treatment community by removing one of the factors that brings people in for help.
A little more than half of those treated for alcohol and drug addictions at Porter-Starke Services Inc. are referred by the courts, said Elliott Miller, director of marketing and development.
Miller, who is overseeing a countywide drug prevention effort, disagrees that legalizing marijuana would not fuel more use.
"If there is more around and it's more accessible, more people will use it," he said.
State Sen. Karen Tallian, D-Ogden Dunes, cited this type of conversation as one of the reasons she recently introduced legislation calling for an examination of the state's marijuana criminal sentencing policy, possession laws, medical use and other issues with the goal of receiving recommendations the Legislature could act on in 2012.
The state has to decide whether to keep spending millions to enforce current marijuana laws as opposed to spending the money on education and infrastructure, she said.
A legislative commission also cited growing costs when unanimously calling on state lawmakers to reduce some criminal sentences, reclassify certain crimes and rely on probation supervision rather than prison for most nonviolent, low-level felonies.
While it is known that the recidivism rate is cut by a third or half when treatment, rather than jail is relied upon, Messing said it is tough to say what the effect will be of taking some marijuana users out of the legal system and away from court-ordered treatment. Only about 20 to 25 percent of those who use drugs or alcohol are addicted, he said.
Miller said treatment facilities might lose client referrals as a result of easing the laws, but the effect could be negated by a larger overall number of marijuana users and thus a larger number of people eventually seeking help.
Porter Superior Judge Julia Jent, who oversees Porter County's drug court, said she does not believe the proposed changes will affect her work with drug offenders.
The defendants in her court are there for felony offenses involving heroin and other hard drugs, she said.
Jent said she is torn over the proposal to ease marijuana laws. One group says marijuana is just a recreational drug, while others cite research showing a very high percentage of young people who never try marijuana never use harder drugs.
"I'm always concerned when you open up something you don't know the end result of," she said.