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The top Republican in the Wisconsin Assembly says he\u2019s unwilling to compromise with his Senate colleagues who are opposed to his plan to create state-run dispensaries under a limited medical marijuana program<\/a>.<\/p>\n Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R) unveiled the medical cannabis bill last week, proposing the \u201cmost restrictive\u201d medical cannabis law in the country. It quickly drew criticism\u2014from Democrats who want comprehensive legalization, as well as Republican Senate leaders who have taken issue with the specifics of the proposal<\/a>.<\/p>\n Vos said at a press conference on Tuesday that he has no plans to amend it to address his Senate counterparts\u2019 concerns.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a very detailed bill that I am pretty sure has 50 votes in our caucus to pass. So taking and re-negotiating the bill means we probably lose votes in our caucus,\u201d the speaker said, as The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d rather get us through to keep the promise we made, which is to have a comprehensive bill that can actually become law, as opposed to an ethereal idea that maybe somebody could support someday, but it never actually makes it anywhere,\u201d Vos said.<\/p>\n The plan he and other Assembly Republicans detailed last week calls for bans on smokeable products, a limited list of qualifying conditions and just five state-run dispensaries.<\/p>\n Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R) said last Thursday that the state-controlled dispensary plan is a \u201cnon-starter for a lot of our caucus members,\u201d questioning why the legislature would \u201clet government grow the size of government.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy caucus, and maybe for a lot of members of the Assembly caucus, we campaign on controlling the size of government,\u201d he said, drawing a comparison to \u201ca DMV for medical marijuana.\u201d That said, he agreed there \u201care a lot of good things in the bill\u201d too that could be fodder for compromise.<\/p>\n Vos appears less willing to have that conversation, which could threaten to derail the limited reform push before formal debates have even started.<\/p>\n Another problem for the Assembly bill is the fact that Senate President Chris Kapenga (R) indicated he\u2019s broadly against even an intentionally restrictive medical cannabis legalization bill, saying that while the proposal \u201cmakes efforts to reduce abuse, data on the efficacy of marijuana as a treatment is inconclusive at best, with dangerous and harmful effects at worst, including public safety concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n Sen. Melissa Agard (D), who has\u00a0led the charge on broader cannabis legalization<\/a> in the legislature over recent sessions, told Marijuana Moment last week that the disconnect between the Assembly and Senate GOP doesn\u2019t necessarily surprise her.<\/p>\n \u201cOver the last few sessions, we\u2019ve witnessed Wisconsin Republicans giving false hope to patients who would greatly benefit from medical marijuana,\u201d she said. \u201cUnfortunately, it appears the GOP\u2019s latest policy proposal is nothing more than a continuation of their pattern of smoke and mirrors when it comes to cannabis reform.\u201d<\/p>\n Under the Assembly GOP plan, as described, the state would create a restrictive system that limits patients to smokeless cannabis options such as oils and edibles. People with qualifying conditions would be eligible to receive a doctor\u2019s recommendation and access the products, which would be sold at five dispensaries across the state.<\/p>\n The qualifying conditions include cancer, epilepsy, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), glaucoma, severe chronic pain, muscle spasms, chronic nausea, multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease, Alzheimer\u2019s disease and terminal illness with less than one year life expectancy.<\/p>\n While the dispensaries would be state-run, growers and processors would be independently operated if they obtain a permit from the state. The pharmacists who dispense the cannabis to patients would be state employees.<\/p>\n According to a legislative analysis, the bill would\u00a0create<\/a>\u00a0an Office of Medical Cannabis Regulation (OMCR) under DHS to regulate the program and manage a statewide patient and caregiver registry. The Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) would be responsible for overseeing the cultivation, processing and testing.<\/p>\n Only the OMCR would be allowed to sell medical cannabis products to patients, and it must set prices \u201conly at a level sufficient to recoup product and operational costs.\u201d Medical cannabis would be exempt from the state sales tax under the proposal. Dispensaries would also be prohibited from advertising their services.<\/p>\n The legislation specifically keeps in place laws that allow employers to prohibit cannabis use, even if it\u2019s used lawfully under the medical marijuana program.<\/p>\n Gov. Tony Evers (D), who supports more broadly legalizing recreational marijuana, surprised some by saying earlier this month, ahead of the release of the details of the GOP Assembly plan, that he\u2019d be inclined to sign a limited reform into law<\/a>\u00a0as long as the bill didn\u2019t contain \u201cpoison pills.\u201d<\/p>\n After details were disclosed, a spokesperson for the governor gave a non-committal reaction, saying Evers \u201clooks forward to hearing from Wisconsinites and other stakeholders as the bill moves through the legislative process.\u201d<\/p>\n The governor also recently said that the GOP legislature\u2019s inaction over recent years has meant Wisconsin \u201cis losing out to our neighboring states\u201d that have enacted the reform.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s high time we legalize, regulate, and tax marijuana in Wisconsin much like we do with alcohol,\u201d said Evers, who granted another round of pardons,\u00a0including dozens issued for people with prior marijuana convictions<\/a>, in November.<\/p>\n Vos, the Assembly speaker, said last month he\u2019s \u201cpretty confident\u201d the legislature will approve the medical marijuana legislation<\/a>, even if it\u2019s \u201cjust Republican votes\u201d that get it across the finish line.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Sen. Mary Felzkowski (R), who has previously filed limited medical cannabis legislation, has said that Democratic-led efforts to push adult-use legalization have\u00a0complicated Republicans\u2019 work on modest reform<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014 The state Department of Revenue released a fiscal estimate of the economic impact of Agard\u2019s legalization bill in November, projecting that\u00a0the reform would generate nearly $170 million annually in tax revenue<\/a>.<\/p>\n Also, a legislative analysis requested by the minority leader estimated that\u00a0Wisconsin residents spent more than $121 million on cannabis in Illinois alone<\/a>\u00a0last year, contributing $36 million in tax revenue to the neighboring state.<\/p>\n Despite all that, the conservative legislature has long resisted even incremental reform\u2014stripping marijuana proposals from the governor\u2019s budget requests<\/a>, for example.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of Wisconsin lawmakers\u00a0formally introduced a measure to decriminalize marijuana possession<\/a>\u00a0last month. Sponsors hope the limited, noncommercial reform will win enough support to clear the state\u2019s GOP-controlled legislature and become law in parallel with the separate medical cannabis bill.<\/p>\n Congressional Researchers Detail Limitations Of Marijuana Rescheduling For State Markets And Criminal Justice Reform<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis \/\/ Side Pocket Images.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Top Wisconsin GOP Lawmaker Unwilling To Amend State-Run Medical Marijuana Bill To Address Senate Republican Leaders\u2019 Concerns<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The top Republican in the Wisconsin Assembly says he\u2019s unwilling to compromise with his Senate colleagues who are opposed to his plan to create state-run dispensaries under a limited medical marijuana program. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R) unveiled the medical cannabis bill last week, proposing the \u201cmost restrictive\u201d medical cannabisContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":71746,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71745"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71745"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71747,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71745\/revisions\/71747"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Top Wisconsin GOP Lawmaker Unwilling To Amend State-Run Medical Marijuana Bill To Address Senate Republican Leaders\u2019 Concerns<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"