Seriously ill patients would be able to get a doctor’s prescription for medical marijuana, under legislation being introduced at the Capitol. State Representative Mark Pocan (D-Madison) says the bill is about compassion and health care reform, with the goal of giving patients and their doctors another valid form of treatment for serious medical conditions. [Read more…]
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Doctors group may blaze trail to legal medical marijuana
The American Medical Association has opened up to the idea of researching cannabis-based medicine, a reversal in its long standing policy. Gary Storck, Communications Director of Is My Medicine Legal Yet, is hoping state lawmakers will take note. “This can only help our efforts in Wisconsin,” he says.
State Senator Jon Erpenbach (D-Waunakee) and State Representative Mark Pocan (D-Madison) are backing a plan to legalize the drug for medicinal use. Previous attempts in the legislature have not gone far. Storck adds groups opposed to the idea in the state, such as the Wisconsin Medical Society, have generally followed the AMA’s stance.
The Madison based activist is pleased with President Obama’s action so far on the issue. Last month, the President ordered federal agents not to arrest medical marijuana users and providers who follow state law. When questioned about the raid moratorium, Governor Doyle said he favors legalizing medical marijuana in Wisconsin, if its use is restricted to people who have a doctor’s prescription.
In July, Obama’s drug czar Gil Kerlikowske said “Marijuana is dangerous and has no medicinal benefit,” while discussing a law enforcement effort in Fresno County, California.
Schimel says feds & medical community should decide marijuana policy
Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel doesn’t think state legislators should be determining marijuana policy.
At an event in St. Paul with Minnesota attorney general Lori Swanson to discuss opioid addiction, Wisconsin’s Republican AG said the medical community and federal government should drive the debate.
“My perspective relating to medical marijuana is that we should let the medical and scientific communities decide what’s best for medicine,” Schimel said. “And right now, neither the AMA nor the FDA have concluded that marijuana is an appropriate way to address pain.”
And Schimel restated a concern often voiced by some law enforcement officials and policy makers , that “pot” often leads to the use of more dangerous drugs.
“Not everyone who smokes marijuana goes on to use harder drugs, but most of the people we find using the harder drugs did start with smoking marijuana,” he said. “It remains a gateway.”
State Senate leader slams the door on legalized marijuana in Wisconsin
There’s no way forward for legalized marijuana of any sort, in the Wisconsin state Senate.
During a WisPolitics virtual event Thursday, Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oosburg) said law enforcement has a lot of concerns – as do employers.
“That it might . . . cause them more problems with people who are high on the job.”
Some Assembly Republicans are willing to consider medical marijuana. Not in the Senate, LeMahieu said. “I don’t think we have support at this point.”
LeMahieu said marijuana should be dealt with at the federal level. “If there’s advantages to it, if it helps out people I have no problem with it, as long as a doctor’s prescribing it,” he said. “But I think that discussion needs to be done at the federal level, and not have some rogue state doing it, without actual science behind it.”
Twenty states, including Minnesota, allow marijuana use for medical purposes. Another 16, including Illinois and Michigan, allow recreational use by adults. Governor Tony Evers proposed legalized medical marijuana in his state budget.
Democratic legislative leaders discuss prospects for marijuana legalization
Democratic leaders in the Wisconsin legislature think the state may be edging closer to legalizing medical marijuana.
State Senate Minority Leader Janet Bewley (D-Mason) told WisPolitics on Thursday that she thinks a standalone bill to legalize medical cannabis could pass. “I believe it could pass as a standalone, but for now it’s in the budget.”
Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz (D-Oshkosh) credits Governor Tony Evers for elevating the issue.
“I’m glad that he’s put it out there, I think the proposal alone accelerates the discussion,” Hintz told WisPolitics. “And I think we will eventually get there. I just don’t know if it’s in the next six months or the next decade.”
Republicans on the legislature’s budget panel have already rejected legalization through the budget process.
Hintz said he’s discussed the legalization issue with officials in Colorado, where cannabis was legalized in a 2012 referendum. He said the consensus there is that a greater public education effort would have been helpful prior to the start of legal marijuana sales.
“There’s still a lot of people in the state that have had no exposure, no understanding, to who the proposal just sounds so radical, based on their 11th grade health class in the early 70’s,” Hintz said.
Republicans on the legislature’s budget panel have already rejected Governor Tony Evers’ proposed legalization through the budget process.
“I certainly don’t think that kind of a topic should be in as part of the budget, this session anyway,” state Senator Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) said last month.
JFC co-chair says marijuana legalization doesn’t belong in budget
Governor Tony Evers will include language to legalize medical and recreational marijuana in his state budget. It’s a policy change the Democratic governor says he thinks belongs in the spending plan he’ll officially announce on Tuesday.
“Every person in the Capitol knows that policy is primarily made through the budget-making process,” Evers said Sunday on WISN’s UpFront. “There’s no reason that it can’t be part of the budget, and I’m hoping to get it done. If the legislature want to take it up and pass it outside the budget, I’m more than willing to do that.”
Joint Finance Committee co-chair, Representative Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) doesn’t see it that way.
“This is a good example of kind of what we encouraged Governor Evers not to do in his budget,” Born said, also on UpFront. “Policy items like this are better discussed in the legislative process. We should have a bill, we should have public hearings.”
Evers will include marijuana legalization in budget proposal
Governor Tony Evers says he’ll include legalization of recreational marijuana in the two-year budget proposal he’ll introduce next week.
The drug would be regulated and taxed in much the same way the state does with alcohol. Wisconsin would join 15 other states that have already legalized recreational marijuana, including Michigan and Illinois.
According to the governor, this would generate about $165 million annually. Evers wants much of that funneled into a development fund for local communities and funding for small, rural school districts.
In announcing the idea on Sunday, the Democratic governor cited a 2019 Marquette Law School Poll, which found nearly 60 percent of respondents in support of legalizing marijuana and 83 percent support for legalization of medical marijuana.
Evers’ previous budget proposed legalizing medical marijuana, an idea which Republicans in the Legislature rejected.
Marijuana advocate critical of 2020 DNC platform
A veteran Wisconsin marijuana advocate is underwhelmed by the Democratic National Committee’s platform, which calls for legalizing its medical use, but does not support full legalization of the drug.
Gary Storck noted that the popular recreational drug is still listed as a Schedule I drug by the federal government.
“They (the DNC platform committee) say that cannabis should be rescheduled. That was something that we talked about the 1970s,” Storck told WRN. “At this point, the only honest way to deal with cannabis is to completely remove it from the schedule.”
Currently, 11 states and the District of Colombia have made recreational cannabis legal.
The DNC platform committee rejected an amendment calling on the party to support marijuana legalization as an official 2020 policy plank, but included language supporting rescheduling and decriminalization.”
“Decriminalization? Yeah, that would be great. But still, that’s another 1970s idea. You know, this is 2020, and people are expecting a lot more,” Strock said, adding that the 2020 platform is “several steps backwards,” from 2016, when the party platform included language calling or a path to legalization.
The DNC platform also calls for expungement of prior convictions, legalizing medical cannabis and allowing states to set their own laws.
Talk but no movement on marijuana laws in Wisconsin
The past year saw lots of talk about the status of marijuana in Wisconsin. But the closest we came to any action was Governor Tony Evers putting language in his budget that would have essentially legalized pot here — a non-starter for Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester).
“I don’t want to legalize recreational marijuana, I want to allow for the limited use of medical marijuana to help people in pain and who are suffering,” said Vos, adding that Evers “poisoned the well,” by attempting to legalize cannabis via the state budget.
“Is medical marijuana the most important issue in the state of Wisconsin? For some people, yes,” Evers said. “But overall it’s not something most people are going to participate in. But why not let those people who are suffering have that opportunity.”
But a recently introduced Republican bill to allow that was shot down by Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau). “I don’t know why this is a good time to introduce legal marijuana in this state, I just don’t. It doesn’t make any sense to me.” Fitzgerald suggested that the state has enough challenges with opioid addiction and drunk driving, without injecting legal marijuana into the mix. He said there’s little support for among Senate Republicans, who hold a 19-14 majority in the chamber.
So it’s back to square one, even as neighboring Michigan and Illinois are implementing recreational marijuana.
State Democrats continue push for legal marijuana
State Democrats are continuing their efforts towards various levels of marijuana legalization.
A new report from the UW Public Affairs center says Wisconsin could stand to see a windfall through marijuana legalization.
State representative David Bowen says the report shows that legalization would generate over 200 million dollars a year in benefits and revenue for the state.
“That would benefit the state of Wisconsin, benefits residents and taxpayers that are looking for more revenue to be there to take care of important services, but also to have some savings as well on top of that $1.1 billion.”
Bowen says it would also reduce costs on policing and jailing users. “It’s a benefit for our state coffers, it’s a benefit for a more just criminal justice system that can be more efficient as well.”
Legalization of medical marijuana is also part of Governor Evers’ budget. The Marquette Law School Poll showed that 83 percent of residents support medical marijuana.
Republican leaders in both the Senate and the Assembly remain opposed to the issue.