Hope Karnopp
Vos said he still prefers a model with state-run instead of private dispensaries — an idea that many Republicans dismissed last year — in order to avoid recreational legalization in Wisconsin.
"A red line for us is that we do not want, like it has in almost every other state, medical marijuana to lead to recreational marijuana," Vos said Wednesday in a year-end interview with the Journal Sentinel. "I think there is a legitimate, compassionate purpose for medicinal, I don't really see any reason for recreational."
Senate President Mary Felzkowski, a Republican from Tomahawk, said this week she hoped both chambers could come to a consensus but indicated state-run dispensaries remain a non-starter for many Republicans.
Wisconsin is among a shrinking minority of states that do not have a recreational or medical-use marijuana program. About half of states have legalized small amounts of marijuana for recreational use, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, including neighboring Minnesota, Illinois and Michigan.
"I really hope that we see some real interest from our Republican colleagues in working on this issue," Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer, a Democrat from Racine, told the Journal Sentinel in a year-end interview. "We know that both medical and recreational marijuana legalization are very popular."
Here are other notable developments on marijuana in Wisconsin this year, and a look ahead at what could happen when the Legislature convenes in January.
State-run dispensaries likely to remain a sticking point for medical bill
In early January, Vos introduced a bill that would have created a medical marijuana program — marking the first time an effort to legalize cannabis has been pushed by at least one Republican leader in the state Legislature.
The bill would have created five-state run dispensaries, rather than paving the way for private dispensaries. The proposal would have allowed forms like concentrates, pills and edibles, but users would not have been able to smoke marijuana.
Other lawmakers quickly rejected the idea, including Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, who said his caucus didn't want to grow the size of government. Democrats also criticized the bill as too restrictive. By mid-February, Vos said the bill was likely dead for the session given the opposing positions from Republicans.
The bill didn't receive a public hearing in 2024. Felzkowski — who is now in a leadership position as Senate president — previously authored a different medical marijuana bill that did get a hearing in 2022.
At a virtual WisPolitics forum Tuesday, Felzkowski said there's "really one person that has seemed to be an obstacle to the medical marijuana bill passing" who "has some pretty strict ideas on how that bill should be drafted."
Felzkowski confirmed she was referring to Vos. Felzkowski said "there were a lot of really good things" in the proposal from Vos and Assembly Republicans, but creating state-run dispensaries was a sticking point for Republicans in both chambers.
"We're hoping to have a conversation in early January to see if there isn't a way that we can come to a consensus between Assembly Republicans and Senate Republicans to negotiate a compromise, and maybe move a medical marijuana bill this session," Felzkowski said.
Vos told the Journal Sentinel he would "probably not" be willing to remove the state-run dispensaries idea from a future bill but is "open to listening" to other proposals that would still prevent opening the door to recreational marijuana.
"We spent almost 100 hours in this room with lawyers and legislators and activists, trying to find a consensus. And we found one," Vos said. "The Senate hasn't gone through that same process. They have not generated a consensus in their own caucus."
Marquette polling in January showed continued support for legalization
Democrats in Wisconsin have long pointed to polling that shows the majority of the state's population supports marijuana legalization, and some new numbers came out in 2024.
The Marquette University Law School poll most recently asked about the subject in January of this year and found 63% of respondents support legalizing marijuana. That level of support is similar to 2022, when Marquette asked the same question, but support reached as low as 42% in a 2014 poll.
In the January poll, 86% of those surveyed said medical marijuana should be legal in Wisconsin with a doctor's prescription. That's only the second time the question has been asked in the history of the poll. In 2019, support for medical marijuana was at 83%.
While the polling indicates majorities of Wisconsinites support marijuana legalization, Wisconsin does not have a process where voters can initiate putting the issue on the ballot.
Elsewhere in the country, voters in Nebraska approved legalizing both recreational and medical marijuana in November, while voters in Florida, North Dakota and South Dakota rejected legalizing recreational marijuana.
Potential bipartisan movement on regulating delta-8, or banning it
Earlier this year, Vos told the Journal Sentinel he wanted to ban delta-8 and similar cannabis products and planned to take up the issue in the state Legislature in 2025.
"I think that's the wise move," Vos said at the time. "But I think it's super unlikely with Democrats wanting to go in the opposite direction and legalize recreational marijuana, so we're kind of in a quandary."
Two Democrats told the Journal Sentinel they oppose banning delta-8 but raised concerns about the lack of oversight of the fast-growing industry. They noted hemp producers and processors are looking for the government to step up with regulations.
The bipartisan interest followed an investigation by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The Examination and AL.com, which found chemical cousins to marijuana — known as delta-8, HHC, THCH and more — are causing a sharp rise in reports of children and adults getting sick, raising concern among doctors and public health officials.
"(It's) not a very regulated industry. We don't really know what's in it, and that's not a good thing. So I hope that we are able to have a really rigorous conversation," Neubauer told the Journal Sentinel.
In his year-end interview with the Journal Sentinel, Vos said he hopes lawmakers can "at least try to find a consensus."
"This idea that you would have cannabis-infused drinks for sale in every convenience store and grocery stores across the state, I don't think that's right. But I certainly don't think it's right for kids," Vos said.
More:'Don't get rid of it': Future of delta-8 in question as lawmakers and hemp industry square off
More:Those who opened doors for delta-8 in Wisconsin say they had 'no idea'
Democrats didn't flip control of Legislature, but GOP majority is narrower
Like in previous years, a large group of Democratic lawmakers pitched a sweeping bill in 2023 that would have legalized marijuana, regulated production and processing, and expunged or lowered past convictions related to marijuana.
However, Republicans who control the Legislature did not hold hearings for the bill in 2024. Democrats hoped to gain control in November under new legislative maps and pass policies like marijuana legalization. They picked up several seats, narrowing the Republican majority, but fell short of taking control of the Assembly or Senate.
"Under the gerrymander, we really only had a handful of folks that were truly accountable to their constituents in the Assembly, in the sense that if they voted a way their constituents didn't like, they could remove them," Neubauer said at the WisPolitics forum.
"We have a lot more people who are in that position now, and that's very good for democracy. And I think that that is going impact this (marijuana) conversation, in particular, in a real way," she said.
The Legislature has also lost one of its most active Democratic lawmakers on marijuana legalization. Former state Sen. Melissa Agard left the statehouse and is now the Dane County executive. Other Democrats — including newly-elected lawmakers and those who authored the legalization bill last year — could step up and become even more vocal on the issue.
Laura Schulte of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed to this story.
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