WI Lawmakers Hold Marijuana Legalization Hearing On 4/20

WISCONSIN — Two Wisconsin Republicans held a hearing Wednesday — the same date as the popular but unofficial weed holiday — to introduce a medical marijuana program in Wisconsin. The meeting was the first of its kind in the state.

State Sen. Mary Felzkowski (R-Irma) and State Rep. Patrick Snyder (R-Schofield), both Republicans, presented a bill to allow physicians to recommend medical marijuana to patients under certain conditions and to create a commission to regulate a statewide medical marijuana program.

The bill falls short of full legalization of cannabis in Wisconsin, State Sen. Melissa Agard (D-Madison) said in a statement. The bill doesn’t do enough for cannabis reform or ending the dangers of prohibition in the Badger State, she added, despite legislators having had months to discuss it across the aisle.

“The most dangerous thing about cannabis in Wisconsin is that it is illegal,” Agard said. “Senate Bill 1034 falls drastically short of the cannabis reform our state desperately needs and what the majority of Wisconsinites support: full cannabis legalization.”

Sen. Lena Taylor (D-Milwaukee) said that the hearing was “a step” towards greater legalization, despite the bill’s limits.

“We are the hole in the donut of all the states around us,” when it comes to legalization, Taylor added.

The legislative session was adjourned for 2022, and the bill won’t be considered this year, but lawmakers said they would reintroduce the bill next January.

Felzkowski, who had battled with breast cancer, called cannabis a drug but not a “silver bullet” to help people with debilitating pain. When she was taking chemotherapy treatment, doctors recommended her OxyContin, which can be seriously addictive, she said.

“If there was a way that a natural product could have helped and reduced those side effects — if you take a prescription drug with side effects, you take more drugs to counteract side effects — it’s unreal. I think it's cruel we don’t allow people to try something without those side effects,” the state senator said.

Full legalization would be a step toward ending mass incarceration, which most affects Black people in Wisconsin, Taylor said. She said that she would want to see a bipartisan discussion of the bill in the future.

April 20 is recognized by marijuana users and non-users as a weed-related holiday. The earliest traces of the holiday goes back to 1971, when five high school students at San Rafael High School in Marin County, California, would meet at 4:20 p.m. to smoke cannabis, Time reported.

The Marquette University Law School poll released in March 2022 found that 61 percent of Wisconsinites favor marijuana legalization, The Wisconsin Examiner reported. Support from Republicans, Democrats and Independents increased by around 20 points over the past decade.

Illinois legalized recreational cannabis for adults in 2019. Minnesota approved marijuana for medical use in 2014.