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Recreational marijuana sale and use is illegal in Indiana, but as Michigan and Illinois begin to legalize recreational marijuana, the Lake County Council is considering an ordinance that would make possessing under 30 grams of marijuana a ticketable offense, according to a December 6 story in the Chicago Tribune.

In Lake County, the potential ordinance violation would only be applied to possession of marijuana 30 grams or less. Police officers will have discretion and can still charge someone with a criminal possession charge, he said.

An ordinance violation is “funneling” a person through the “civil penalty system” rather than the “criminal penalty system,” said Daniel Orenstein, Visiting Assistant Professor of Law at the IU Robert H. McKinney School of Law and an expert on marijuana law and policy.

 “This potential ordinance doesn’t make it legal,” Orenstein said. “It doesn’t make it legal to possess marijuana in Lake County.”

States that have legalized recreational marijuana are still dealing with enforcement challenges, Orenstein told the Chicago Tribune. But, “it’s a particularly challenging situation” when states, like Indiana, that haven’t legalized or decriminalized recreational marijuana are within driving distance of a state that has, Orenstein said.

“(The enforcement challenges) are magnified then across the border in a state that, like Indiana, is having to deal with folks who maybe go across the border and legally purchase this product in Illinois or Michigan and bring it back, and it’s suddenly illegal when they cross the border,” Orenstein said.

“There’s a good argument to be made in favor of any action - local, state, federal - that reduces the criminal implications of simple possession,” Orenstein said. “I can understand why a place like Lake County would consider something like this."