Medical cannabis could be made legal in Wisconsin this year as the state’s Democrat Governor indicates he’s willing to sign a Republican-led bill.
Governor Tony Evers says he would support a bill to legalise medical cannabis for limited conditions, set to be put forward later this month.
In late December, Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said that he planned to put forward a bill to establish a medical cannabis programme akin to Minnesota’s, which allows access to medical cannabis for those suffering with conditions like HIV, cancer and PTSD.
Asked whether he would consider the bill, Mr Evers suggested that if it was free of political traps from the Republican authors, he would support it.
“If it’s a bill that’s not filled with poison pills, I probably will sign it.”
While the details of Mr Vos’ bill have not yet been made public, a recent interview between Republican Rep. David Steffen and local media outlet Action 2 News shed some light on its scope.
He suggested that the bill would allow only incredibly limited access, stating: “If we’re going to let the genie out of the bottle, we’re going to try to control that as much as possible.”
This would mean that no forms of smokable cannabis would be available to patients, instead seeing only things like edibles and THC creams allowed to treat a limited number of conditions, and a highly controlled number of licences given to dispensaries throughout the state.
Minnesota initially launched its medical cannabis programme in a similar vein, but recently amended legislation to allow access to smokeable forms.
“We’re taking a very limited step into these waters,” said Steffen.
