On February 24, 2026, a coalition of Wisconsin Democrats introduced SB 1045, which proposes to legalize and regulate cannabis in the state while at the same time imposing new rules for intoxicating hemp products.
This, of course, is not the first effort from Wisconsin Democrats to push for the legalization of cannabis in The Badger State, having introduced bills in multiple legislative sessions over the past decade. At each juncture, they were stymied by their Republican counterparts who controlled the majority of seats in both chambers of the Wisconsin legislature. Those Republican majorities remain today.
However, this year, there is renewed optimism that a cannabis legalization bill might gain unprecedented traction in the state following softening rhetoric on cannabis from the White House, ongoing efforts to reschedule cannabis to Schedule III of the federal Controlled Substances Act, and increasing popularity among Republican voters in the state, a slight majority of which now appear to support the legalization of adult-use cannabis.1 Critically, SB 1045 proposes to legalize and regulate both adult-use and medical cannabis while also more stringently regulating intoxicating hemp products.
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