Wisconsin GOP Assembly Speaker, said he hoped lawmakers could “find a common ground” in legalizing medical cannabis. The Assembly speaker said that his Republican Senate counterpart’s new cannabis bill is unlikely to be passed by the Wisconsin Senate because it was “way too large and too far-reaching.”
I have been working for at least five years on finding a solution to this problem,” Robin Vos, the Republican Speaker of the House said during an interview conducted by WISN-TV Sunday. “I don’t think that most people will be in the cities where we have dispensaries for medical marijuana.”
Vos introduced a medical marijuana bill last year that provided for a restricted program to be run through dispensaries operated by the state.
“So we tried to have a much more limited version to say, ‘look, let’s have five or six dispensaries statewide [and] In the interview, he stated that he wanted to make sure it wasn’t a money-driven motivation, but rather a way to assist people who were truly sick.
The state-run system was controversial, but ultimately failed to gain traction among Vos’ Republican colleagues. Vos now raises concerns regarding new legislation, introduced last week by Senate president Mary Felzkowski(R) and GOP lawmakers. This would create a system that is more traditional with licensed private dispensaries.
“I’m still hopeful that we can find consensus. But it seems to me the release version is way too general and wide-ranging, and I worry this will eventually lead to the recreational use of marijuana.” he added. “I do not want that.”
Speaker said that it was “unlikely”, the Senate Bill could receive enough support in the Assembly to pass.
He added: “I understand that there’s an entire group of Republicans who are opposed because they believe it would open the door to recreational marijuana which is bad for Wisconsin.” “There’s another group who want to have legalized marijuana, and that’s the Democrats—so they don’t want to have any real restrictions.”
“So trying to find a consensus in the middle is super challenging, which is why I thought the bill we had last time—where it was a very skinny version, very scaled down, focusing only on the people who are truly sick and needy—had the best chance to pass. Even that bill had its problems. Now this is even more general. “I can’t imagine a situation where this will pass, but time will tell.”
Vos, when asked if he would support Senator McConnell’s bill, said that he “probably” wouldn’t vote for it if it were ever put to a ballot.
Last week, Felzkowski (R), who had previously sponsored a different medical cannabis bill, announced in a press release that she filed the new measure alongside Sen. Patrick Testin (R), with an Assembly companion version from Assemblymember Patrick Snyder (R).
It was unclear what the text would be, but Felzkowski’s earlier bill had allowed doctors in eight states to prescribe medical cannabis to their patients who suffered from cancer, epilepsy, post-traumatic anxiety disorder, or multiple sclerosis.
This legislation was quite restrictive as it banned smokable cannabis products, and would not have permitted patients to grow their own cannabis. The only cannabis products available to patients were oils, pills or tinctures.
In a recent press release, cancer survivor Felzkowski said that someone who is suffering from a serious illness should not be forced to break the law or travel out of state to try alternative medicines.
This legislation gives our neighbors, relatives, and friends who are suffering from chronic diseases the opportunity to talk with their doctor about other treatment options. It is also a great opportunity for the small business owners in our state, who are able to compete in this market by having reasonable restrictions on selling and making these products.
As the 2025 session was set to get underway, the Senate leader said she was “hoping to have a conversation” in the legislature about legalizing medical marijuana this year—though Vos, the Assembly speaker, still represented “an obstacle,” she added.
In July, the Republican candidate for Wisconsin governor said that he would be “open” to different possibilities when it came to the legalization of medical marijuana or adult use in the state. He has not provided any specifics, however.
The Democratic Party is led by the current Governor. Tony Evers will not run for re-election. He supports the legalization of cannabis. But he said in June that if his party can take control of the legislature, the state can “finally” legalize marijuana so that residents don’t have to go to neighboring Illinois to visit its adult-use market.
A separate poll by Marquette Law School in June found that in Wisconsin, two out of three voters are in favor of legalizing cannabis.
The study found that the support for reforming cannabis laws has steadily increased since 2013 when the organization began to track public opinion about legalization. Today, 67 per cent of respondents are in favor of this policy. It’s 17 percent higher than 2013.
At 88 per cent, Democrats favor the legalization of cannabis. Independents are second at 79 per cent. A majority of Republicans (56%), however, said that they are still against legalizing adult-use cannabis.
Underscoring the importance of party control, the state’s Republican-controlled Senate and Assembly this summer rejected another attempt to legalize marijuana, defeating amendments to budget legislation that would have ended prohibition in the state and established new medical and recreational cannabis programs.
Evers has routinely attempted to change that policy as part of his budget requests—and Democratic leaders have similarly pushed for reform.
Republicans in the legislature also cut the marijuana provisions from a state budget proposal in May, as they’ve done in past sessions.
Despite Republicans’ move to cut legalization from the budget legislation, party leaders recently acknowledged that the debate over medical marijuana legalization is “not going to go away,” and there’s hope it can be resolved this session.
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Tyler August, Assembly Majority Rep. (R), said that in February: “I do not think anyone would be naive to believe marijuana or THC products were absent from Wisconsin. They are available across state borders. I think this is something we should address.” I’m optimistic that we will be able to.”
If we are going to label it as medical marijuana, then it must be treated just like any other pharmaceutical. The marijuana debate will not go away, Sen. Dan Feyen said. “The margins of victory are smaller.”
Evers previewed his plan to include marijuana legalization in his budget in January, while also arguing that residents of the state should be allowed to propose new laws by putting binding questions on the ballot—citing the fact that issues such as cannabis reform enjoy sizable bipartisan support while the GOP-controlled legislature has repeatedly refused to act.
Previously, in 2022, the governor signed an executive order to convene a special legislative session with the specific goal of giving people the right to put citizen initiatives on the ballot, raising hopes among advocates that cannabis legalization could eventually be decided by voters. However, the GOP did not accept this proposal.
Evers said in December that marijuana reform is one of several key priorities the state should pursue in the 2025 session, as lawmakers work with a budget surplus.
Days after he made the remarks, a survey found the reform would be welcomed by voters in rural parts of the state. Nearly two-thirds of respondents (65%) said that they supported legalizing cannabis.
Last May, the governor said he was “hopeful” that the November 2024 election would lead to Democratic control of the legislature, in part because he argued it would position the state to finally legalize cannabis.
He stated at the time, “We worked hard for five years on several budgets in order to get this done.” I know that we are surrounded by other states who have legalized recreational marijuana. We will continue doing it.
A Wisconsin Democratic Assemblymember tried to force a vote on a medical cannabis compromise proposal last year, as an amendment to an unrelated kratom bill, but he told MEDCAN24 he suspects leadership intentionally pulled that legislation from the agenda at the last minute to avoid a showdown on the issue.
Meanwhile, the state Department of Revenue released a fiscal estimate of the economic impact of a legalization bill from then-Sen. Melissa Agard (D) in 2023, projecting that the reform would generate nearly $170 million annually in tax revenue.
A legislative analysis requested by lawmakers estimated that Wisconsin residents spent more than $121 million on cannabis in Illinois alone in 2022, contributing $36 million in tax revenue to the neighboring state.
Evers and other Democrats have since at least last January insisted that they would be willing to enact a modest medical marijuana program, even if they’d prefer more comprehensive reform.
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