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Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said the bill would propose something similar to Minnesota's medical marijuana program, which originally allowed for the substance to be sold in pill, oil and liquid forms for people with serious conditions such as HIV, cancer, Crohn's disease, post-traumatic stress disorder and chronic pain. |
Republicans will likely introduce a medical marijuana bill in January that would allow the substance for Wisconsinites with serious conditions, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said Wednesday.
Vos, R-Rochester, said the bill would propose something similar to Minnesota’s medical marijuana program, which originally allowed for the substance to be sold in pill, oil and liquid forms for people with serious conditions such as HIV, cancer, Crohn’s disease, post-traumatic stress disorder and chronic pain. The Minnesota law was recently modified to allow for smokeable forms of cannabis.
Vos said he’s been operating under the assumption that 50 Assembly Republicans — a majority of the 99-member chamber — would have to support the proposal for it to pass because Democrats typically support broader programs than what it appears Assembly Republicans are slated to introduce.
Vos offered details about the proposal under the condition that the Wisconsin State Journal not seek reactions to it until early Thursday morning. Legislative Democrats haven’t made clear publicly that they would be unanimously opposed to narrower marijuana bills.
Democratic Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer said Democrats were open to discussing the Republican bill.
"We hope that it's a serious proposal from our colleagues that addresses the past harms that have been caused by the criminalization of marijuana and that really allows access for the people who need it," she said Thursday.
Republicans this year stripped provisions to legalize marijuana from Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ two-year budget.
Without providing more specifics about the bill, Vos said its authors wanted to make sure there would be no pathway “to assume that because we have medicinal (marijuana), someday we’ll have recreational.”
Vos said the bill is different from legislation Sen. Mary Felzkowski, R-Irma, has been working on. It’s unclear what the differences between the proposals will be, but Felzkowski’s last version of the bill also proposed allowing the use of medical marijuana in nonsmokeable forms for people with serious conditions.
Felzkowski’s previous version of the proposal received a public hearing in April 2022, the first hearing in Wisconsin for a marijuana measure since 2009 and the first one ever under a Republican-led Legislature.
Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, who previously said he opposed legalizing marijuana for medical use, has since said Senate Republicans are moving closer to supporting the policy for serious conditions.
An October 2022 Marquette Law School Poll found 64% of registered voters in Wisconsin, including 46% of Republicans, want marijuana to be fully legalized. A 2019 Marquette Law School Poll found 83% of Wisconsinites said medical marijuana should be legal.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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