EDITORIAL: How narrow minds deprive Wisconsin of a health benefit

When Republican legislators introduced bill SB 534 in October, it seemed possible that at last Wisconsin residents would get access to a health benefit that is available to citizens of 40 other states, including Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan and Iowa.

But now that is looking like a forlorn hope as GOP majority leaders of the state Assembly and Senate, lawmakers whose time in office has been marked more by what they have blocked than what they have accomplished, signal they are ready to snuff out the opportunity with their usual stubborn, narrow-minded opposition.

SB 534 would make medical marijuana legal in Wisconsin. 

The legislation, introduced by Sen. Mary 

Felzkowski of Tomahawk and other Republicans, is so tightly wrapped in security regulations that if passed it would be one of the most restrictive medical marijuana programs in the country. 

The bill was drafted with overly strict requirements expressly to appease the majority leaders who have killed previous attempts to let Wisconsin citizens legally purchase cannabis for medical use. 

It appears that is not working. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said the bill is “way too broad” to be passed. Senator Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu has said that he opposes such legislation because the federal government has not approved medical use of cannabis. Whatever Vos means by “too broad,” the bill certainly can’t be construed as making it too easy to buy a marijuana product to treat pain or other health symptoms. It would create an Office of Medical Cannabis Regulation in the state health department to enforce rules requiring the registration of patients and caregivers, licenses for dispensaries, growers, processors and testing laboratories and prohibition of advertising. For good measure, it would forbid the sale of marijuana in smokable form. 

The majority leaders’ opposition defies the wishes of the overwhelming majority of Wisconsin citizens. Public opinion surveys, including the nationally respected Marquette Law School Poll, have found that more than 80% of state residents want marijuana to be legal for medical use. 

Perhaps in the throes of some sort of marijuana derangement syndrome, the foes of legalizing the medicinal use of cannabis may suspect people in that majority just want to get high on the drug by consuming it in the edible, pill or cream forms in which medical marijuana would be available.

The reality is that medical marijuana is supported by the public because people want to be able to legally obtain it for the relief from pain and other consequences of illness that cannabis can provide, as confirmed by research and the anecdotal evidence provided by people who have benefitted from it.

In particular, cannabis is valued by chronic pain sufferers as an effective alternative to dangerously addictive opiods. Marijuana in any form is considered nonaddictive.

It has been reported that some legislators oppose medical marijuana because they fear it would lead to legalizing recreational use. That may be a scary thought for marijuana paranoids, but it is another indication of how out of step Wisconsin is with its neighboring states. 

Marijuana can be legally purchased for both recreational and medical use in every state that borders Wisconsin, except Iowa (medical-only). The Marquette Poll found that 64% of Wisconsin residents want marijuana to be legal for recreational and medical use, as it is in 24 other states. Gov. Tony Evers has proposed legalization four times, and has been thwarted each time by the Legislature’s Republican majority.

The surrounding states are harvesting hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes collected on marijuana sales, including a significant share of this revenue contributed by Wisconsinites on cross-border shopping trips.

An analysis by the Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimates that Wisconsin residents spent $123 million buying marijuana in Illinois in 2022, including $36 million in taxes. In that year, Illinois collected a total $462 million in marijuana taxes. 

The state of Wisconsin spends tax money on marijuana, rather than collecting it, in law enforcement, judicial and incarceration expenses.

As things stand, legalization of recreational marijuana in Wisconsin is, pardon the expression, a pipe dream. But legal medical marijuana still has a chance if a few obdurate legislators could find a trace of empathy with constituents who want and need the drug produced by the cannabis plant.

It is safe to assume that many Wisconsin residents are already using cannabis for its healing effects, but to get the relief they seek are required to travel to other states to buy cannabis products or break the law to obtain them here. 

That’s an unfair onus that falls on Wisconsinites because they happen to live in a state with a Legislature run by leaders who are all too willing to impose their own narrow views on their fellow citizens.