Top Wisconsin Senator Talks Marijuana Legalization Fight Amid GOP Opposition

Wisconsin’s Democratic Senate minority leader keeps a U.S. map in her office, color-coded to show the status of state marijuana laws around the country. Lately, that map has been growing greener and greener—but not in Wisconsin itself, where the GOP-controlled legislature has resisted even incremental reform.

With Minnesota lawmakers next door poised to send a legalization bill to the pro-reform governor’s desk, Wisconsin will soon become an island of prohibition, surrounded by three states with adult-use markets and one with a limited medical program. Senate Minority Leader Melissa Agard (D) has worked to change that, but Republican leadership controls the agenda—and legalization is not on that list.

“We know that, in Wisconsin, when the Republican members of the legislature want to address something and get it done, they can do it in a swift manner,” Agard told Marijuana Moment in a phone interview on Monday. “And they clearly are not prioritizing cannabis reform in Wisconsin. We haven’t seen it happen.”

Updating the office map AGAIN for #MarijuanaMonday!

Last week, Maryland @GovWesMoore signed into law #cannabis reform, and Marylanders will offficial have a legal recreational market on July 1st, 2023! pic.twitter.com/c5h2Vs5dAg

— Senator Melissa Agard 🌻 (@SenatorAgard) May 9, 2023

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R) said last month that GOP legislators have been privately working on medical cannabis legislation—but no bills have been introduced, no details have been disclosed and no hearings have been scheduled. The Senate minority leader is skeptical.

“I continue to not be looped in to any conversations that are happening and continue to offer myself to be part of them,” she said. “They haven’t provided any sort of actual examples of what policy they would be interested in moving forward.”

If GOP members are seriously considering medical cannabis reform, the expectation is that any proposal that emerges from those discussions will be restrictive—possibly so restrictive that Democrats might be unwilling to go along with it.

Gov. Tony Evers (D), who strongly supports legalization, said in January that he does believe Republicans will introduced medical cannabis legislation this session, and he committed to signing it into law, so long as it’s not “flawed” with too many limitations.

69% of Wisconsinites support marijuana legalization and Republican leadership continues to ignore the will of the people. https://t.co/yPjYkhpzaE

— Senator Melissa Agard 🌻 (@SenatorAgard) May 11, 2023

The governor and the GOP majority have had a strained relationship on this issue. Leadership has criticized Evers for putting adult-use legalization in recent budget requests, with the Assembly speaker warning this year that including the broad reform could jeopardize talks on more modest medical marijuana legislation.

He did it anyways—and, at a joint committee hearing last week, Republicans responded in kind, stripping both recreational and medical cannabis language from the budget proposal, along with hundreds of other policy items.

Doing so, they said, was a matter of fiscal responsibility. But Democrats say that’s a red herring that ignores the fact that enacting a regulated cannabis market in Wisconsin would ultimately generate revenue and create jobs.

#Cannabis prohibition is not working for #Wisconsin.

We need to #LegalizeIt to address Wisconsin's egregious racial disparities, bolster our agriculture and farming heritage, safely regulate the existing illicit market, and support entrepreneurhip. https://t.co/5Q8pEGkAh8

— Senator Melissa Agard 🌻 (@SenatorAgard) May 2, 2023

Agard said in the Marijuana Moment interview that cannabis reform is just one of several major policy issues where there’s a clear disconnect between what the majority of voters want and what GOP majority does. She attributes much of the problem to “extreme gerrymandering” in the state.

Still, cannabis does put a unique spotlight on the political inaction because support for legalization is strong and increasingly bipartisan, leaving voters in both parties to question leadership.

“The folks that are advocating for cannabis reform are such a diverse and broad coalition,” the minority leader said. She’s seen this firsthand as she visits cities across Wisconsin as part of her “Grass Routes” tour, talking to people of different political backgrounds who come to her “scratching their heads and frustrated” over the lack of meaningful reform.

“They see it as common sense. They see it as actually making Wisconsin safer—as well as the ability to invest in the prosperity of our state and honor people’s personal liberties,” she said. “To me, that’s the trifecta of good governance, so we’ll continue.”

Wisconsinites have shown support for the issue in different ways. Polling has come across loud and clear—but voters have also passed a number of local non-binding advisory questions during elections to tell lawmakers in Madison where they stand on marijuana.

The local referendums have been “super important because it allows people to feel less alone in their viewpoints,” Agard said.

“There’s been so much stigma in advocating for cannabis reform across our nation for so long,” she said. “And when people can actually vote their values—even if it’s a non-binding referendum, which I know is frustrating to many people in Wisconsin—they actually realize that there is safety in having these conversations publicly, and they feel less alone. I think that that is helpful in building coalitions and figuring out how it is that we actually change.”

That right to place advisory questions on city and county ballots is being threatened, however. As part of a bill on revenue sharing, Republican lawmakers included a two-line provision that would prohibit municipalities from holding such referenda. The governor has said that he will not sign the legislation as drafted.

“Republicans wanted to take out non-fiscal conversations from a budget bill, but now they are actually inserting poison pills that they aren’t able to get through standalone bills,” Agard said. “That feels really tricky. It feels like they’re on both sides of the knife.”

—Marijuana Moment is tracking more than 1,000 cannabis, psychedelics and drug policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they don’t miss any developments.Learn more about our marijuana bill tracker and become a supporter on Patreon to get access.—

Another way that voters have demonstrated support for legalization is with their dollars, she said. Specifically, the millions of dollars that are being spent by Wisconsinites who are traveling to nearby legal states like Illinois and Michigan to buy cannabis from adult-use retailers.

There’s still a thriving illicit market for marijuana in Wisconsin, the senator said, yet residents are spending the extra time and money to patronize licensed cannabis shops, underscoring the demand for a regulated market.

At Agard’s request, the state’s non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB) carried out a study that was released in March showing that Wisconsin residents purchased more than $121 million worth of marijuana from Illinois retailers in 2022, contributing about $36 million in tax revenue to the state.

Wisconsin’s out-dated marijuana laws are costing us so much more than $36 million – lives are being disrupted – but this is so upsetting to see Wisconsinites hard-earned tax dollars go to Illinois because WI GOP refuses to listen to the will of the people. https://t.co/TkqUEeOH8F

— Senator Melissa Agard 🌻 (@SenatorAgard) March 17, 2023

A separate report published by Wisconsin Policy Forum in February found that 50 percent of adults 21 and older in the state live within 75 minutes of an out-of-state cannabis retailer, such as in Illinois or Michigan. That percentage stands to increase when Minnesota’s market eventually comes online.

Agard shares the frustration of voters, but she remains optimistic that the scales will eventually tip in favor of reform. The coalition of bipartisan supporters continues to grow, regional dynamics continue to challenge the status quo of prohibition and lawmakers continue to face pressure to make a change.

“It’s not a matter of if it’s going to happen,” she said. “It’s a matter of when.”

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Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.

Wisconsin GOP Lawmakers Strip Marijuana Legalization From Governor’s Budget In Joint Hearing

Wisconsin Republican lawmakers have removed proposals to legalize marijuana for recreational and medical use from the governor’s executive budget for the 2023-2025 biennial.

At a hearing of the legislature’s Joint Finance Committee on Tuesday, members voted 12-4 to eliminate numerous provisions of Gov. Tony Evers’s (D) budget request, including measures on legalizing, taxing and regulating cannabis in the state.

The move was expected, as the GOP-controlled legislature has previously stripped marijuana reform language from past executive budgets, and top Republican lawmakers warned that any adult-use legalization proposal would not move through the process this year either.

With a historic $7 billion surplus, we have a historic responsibility and opportunity to invest in needs that have long been neglected and build the future we want for our state. Today, Republicans are rejecting more than 540 priorities for Wisconsin, including:

— Governor Tony Evers (@GovEvers) May 2, 2023

1️⃣4️⃣ Legalizing and Taxing Marijuana I proposed legalizing and taxing marijuana, much like we already do with alcohol, which would help us compete with other states for talented workers and have more resources to invest in critical state priorities like K-12 education.

— Governor Tony Evers (@GovEvers) May 2, 2023

“It is unfortunate that Republicans again chose to ignore the will of the majority and remove cannabis legalization from the state budget,” Senate Minority Leader Melissa Agard (D) told Marijuana Moment on Tuesday. “Beyond having an immense fiscal impact on our state, legalizing cannabis addresses Wisconsin’s egregious racial disparities, bolsters our agriculture and farming heritage, safely regulates the existing illicit market, and support entrepreneurships.”

“It’s high time we get this done for the betterment of our state and the people living here,” Agard said.

#Cannabis prohibition is not working for #Wisconsin.

We need to #LegalizeIt to address Wisconsin's egregious racial disparities, bolster our agriculture and farming heritage, safely regulate the existing illicit market, and support entrepreneurhip. https://t.co/5Q8pEGkAh8

— Senator Melissa Agard 🌻 (@SenatorAgard) May 2, 2023

While Republicans have asserted that removing policy matters from the budget is a matter of fiscal responsibility, Sen. LaTonya Johnson (D) said at Tuesday’s meeting that eliminating marijuana legalization contradicts that objective, preventing the state from reaping the economic benefits of establishing a regulate cannabis market.

“The one thing that we know is that [legalization] will generate up to $44 million in tax revenue,” she said. “Now my Republican colleagues are gonna say that they are all about fiscal responsibility, right? I don’t understand how you can be fiscally responsible, but we’re…leaving $44 million in marijuana expansion on the table.”

Republicans removed marijuana legalization from @GovEvers' budget, ignoring 2/3 of Wisconsinites who support it. Their stance is even more ridiculous with untaxed Delta 8 – which is nearly indistinguishable from traditional THC – already widely available. #LegalizeIthttps://t.co/1ROfLzf2nw

— LaTonya Johnson (@StateSenLaTonya) May 2, 2023

Johnson proposed an amendment to GOP motion to reinstate the deleted provisions, including marijuana reform, but it was rejected in a 4-12 vote.

Evers’s plan would have allowed adults 21 and older purchase and possess up to two ounces of marijuana for personal use and grow up to six plants. The Department of Revenue (DOR), which called for legalization in its budget request this year, would have been responsible for regulating the market and issuing cannabis business licenses.

As part of the budget request, Evers’s office estimated that the state would generate $44.4 million in “segregated tax revenue” from legal cannabis, as well as a $10.2 million increase in state general fund tax revenue, in fiscal year 2025 if the reform is enacted.

Wisconsin Republicans just rejected 545 proposals from @GovEvers’ budget. Republicans removed Medicaid expansion, marijuana legalization, common-sense gun safety reforms, PFAS standards and so much more. pic.twitter.com/hMvSVOFcjT

— Wisconsin Senate Democrats (@SenateDemsWI) May 2, 2023

The governor also included adult-use and medical marijuana legalization in his 2021 budget, as well as decriminalization and medical cannabis in his 2019 proposal, but the conservative legislature has consistently blocked the reform.

While Republican leadership said earlier this year that negotiations over medical cannabis reform would be compromised if Evers moved forward with pushing for recreational legalization in his budget, the GOP caucus has privately met to discuss advancing medical marijuana legislation this session.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R) didn’t provide details about the in-the-works proposals when he disclosed the meetings last month, but he said that the goal is to draft something with bipartisan appeal that could be enacted later this year.

Top Democrats—including Agard, the Senate minority leader who’s championed adult-use legalization—are skeptical of the plan.

“We’ve seen this story before—but actions speak louder than words,” she said last month. “Session after session, the Speaker has come forward with empty promises but no tangible steps toward any form of legal cannabis Wisconsin.”

—Marijuana Moment is tracking more than 1,000 cannabis, psychedelics and drug policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they don’t miss any developments.Learn more about our marijuana bill tracker and become a supporter on Patreon to get access.—

Agard and Sen. Mary Felzkowski (R) also spoke about the prospects of cannabis reform during a webinar hosted by the Wisconsin Policy Forum last month.

Felzkowski, who’s previously sponsored medical cannabis legislation, said that she’s personally “very, very focused on getting medical marijuana across the finish line the session.”

But she told Marijuana Moment that there would be a need to “compromise” on the legislation, which would likely prohibit smoking cannabis and limit the conditions that would make people eligible for medical marijuana.

Wisconsin lawmakers are under pressure to provide some kind of regulated access to cannabis given the rapid regional policy shifts.

A report published in February found that 50 percent of Wisconsinites 21 and older live within 75 minutes of an out-of-state cannabis retailer, such as in Illinois or Michigan. That percentage stands to increase if legislative efforts to legalize marijuana in neighboring Minnesota are successful this session.

Wisconsin residents purchased more than $121 million worth of marijuana from legal retailers in neighboring Illinois in 2022, contributing about $36 million in tax revenue to the state, according to a recent legislative analysis requested by Agard.

Vos, the Assembly speaker, has said that trying to enact adult-use legalization through the budget could “poison the well” in the legislature, jeopardizing talks on medical cannabis. But the leader of the Senate has expressed that he thinks the more modest policy is feasible this session.

“Our caucus is getting pretty close on medical marijuana,” Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R) said. “A lot of our members, who are maybe at a point where they can vote for it now, they just want to make sure it’s regulated well.”

The governor said that he was encouraged by the Senate leader’s remarks about nearing consensus on medical marijuana, and he’s prepared to sign such legislation as long as it’s not “flawed” by including too many restrictions.

Evers didn’t bring up his legalization proposal in his budget speech this year, but he did stress in his inaugural address last month that the state needs to have a “meaningful conversation about treating marijuana much like we do alcohol.”

Some Wisconsin lawmakers have filed bills to legalize cannabis for adult use—and former Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke (R) has said legalization is “likely” to happen at some point—but the legislature has so far failed to pass even more modest proposals like decriminalization or the legalization of medical cannabis.

Ahead of the November election, Evers met with college students and urged supporters to get engaged and vote, in part to ensure that the state advances marijuana legalization.

If Democrats had won enough seats, it could have also set them up to pass a resolution that the governor introduced to allow citizens to put initiatives on the ballot. Advocates expressed hope that the move could open the door to finally letting voters decide on marijuana legalization, but it’s unlikely that GOP lawmakers will go along with it.

Meanwhile, voters across the state have been making their voices heard on cannabis reform over the past several election cycles. Most recently, voters in three counties and five municipalities across the state approved non-binding advisory questions on their local ballots in support of legalization.

The local votes are largely meant to serve a messaging purpose, providing lawmakers with a clear policy temperature-check among their constituents. But those that were approved will not change any laws by themselves.

A statewide poll released in August found that a solid 69 percent of registered voters in Wisconsin believe that cannabis should be legal. That includes 81 percent of Democrats, 75 percent of independents and 51 percent of Republicans.

Republicans filed a limited medical cannabis bill last year—and it got a hearing on the unofficial marijuana holiday 4/20, but that came too late in the legislative session for lawmakers to actually vote on the measure.

Other GOP members have filed bills to more modestly decriminalize marijuana possession in the state, but none of those proposals advanced.

As it stands, marijuana possession is punishable by a maximum $1,000 fine and up to six months in jail for a first offense. People convicted of a subsequent offense would face a felony charge punishable by a maximum $10,000 fine and up to three and a half years in prison.

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Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.