Wisconsin Republicans have officially unveiled legislation aimed at legalizing the medical use of marijuana.
In multiple press conferences held throughout the state today, leading Republican lawmakers revealed their conservative approach to legalizing medical marijuana.
The proposed law would allow those with a physician recommendation to possess a variety of marijuana products such as tinctures and capsules, while not allow patients to actually smoke marijuana. Patients would be allowed to purchase medical marijuana products from state-operated dispensaries that are staffed by government pharmacists. The state’s dispensary system would be overseen by the Department of Health Services.
Qualifying medical marijuana conditions would include PTSD, glaucoma, muscle spasms, chronic pain, epilepsy, cancer, multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease, terminal illness with less than a year to live and Alzheimer’s disease.
“We’ve come up with a program I think is going to be very beneficial to a lot of Wisconsinites,” says State Representative Jon Plumer (R). “We think we have a good program put together. It’s going to be probably modified over the years as we learn about it, as we realize we have changes we should probably make”.
Plumer calls the proposal “a really strong starting point”, saying “We want to make this available to people, but we want to have tight controls on it as well”.
Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos says the measure is as expansive as Republicans are willing to go.
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers supports a more liberal approach to marijuana, including supporting legalizing the plan for recreational use. However, Governor Evers says he would sign the Republicans medical marijuana proposal into law if it reaches his desk.
“I would think that getting it all done in one fell swoop would be more thoughtful as far as meeting the needs of Wisconsinites that have asked for it. But if that’s what we can accomplish right now, I’ll be supportive of that.”
