Wisconsin senators have approved a bill to legalize medical marijuana in the state as other legislators push for broader adult-use legalization. The Senate Health Committee on Thursday advanced the medical cannabis legislation from Senate President Mary Felzkowski (R) and Sen. Patrick Testin (R) in a 4-1 vote. This comes months after the panel held an initial hearing on the GOP-led proposal, which was introduced last October.
Wisconsin's GOP Assembly speaker said last year that he hoped lawmakers in the state could "find a consensus" on legislation to legalize medical marijuana. But he added that the cannabis bill filed by his Republican leadership counterpart in the Senate was "unlikely" to pass his chamber because it is "way too broad and way too wide-ranging."
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R) also said last month that President Donald Trump made the "wrong" choice to order the rescheduling of marijuana—which he called a "dangerous drug"—but he said the upside is that research barriers may be lifted in a way that demonstrates medical cannabis can be effectively used in a limited way as an alternative to prescription medications.
However, the speaker said he thinks "we are not there" in terms of having enough votes to advance even a medical cannabis bill through his chamber at this point, despite characterizing himself as a supporter of patients' access to marijuana "for almost a decade now.
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