According to a top GOP Wisconsin lawmaker, legalization of marijuana in the state will come “at some point.”
This is despite Republican resistance.
The top Wisconsin Assembly lawmaker says that marijuana legalization is essentially an inevitability in the state and that more limited medical cannabis legislation has a better shot of being enacted in the near term.
In an interview with Wisconsin Public Radio this week, Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke (R) was prompted with new polling showing that bipartisan majorities favor ending cannabis criminalization and asked whether the legislature might advance legalization.
“It’s an interesting question,” Steineke said. “Obviously other states throughout the country are moving in that direction. I think that’s likely the direction at some point, with the state of Wisconsin, goes.”
According to Steineke, he feels enacting medical cannabis legalization will be a “more likely” possibility as an initial step. But while adult-use legalization “has a much tougher path to get through the legislature actually [being] signed into law, I do think we’re heading in that direction.”
The politician explained that the challenge will be crafting the “right legislation that is tight enough to pass something,” he said, adding that he’s “always been a supporter” of that approach.The leader also took a question from a caller who expressed frustration that medical marijuana has not been made available for her father, who she’s been caring for as he’s suffered from Parkinson’s disease. She wanted to know why lawmakers have failed to act.Steineke said that the “real issue is really the the ability of the legislature to craft a medicinal marijuana bill in a way that doesn’t open up the door wide to recreational marijuana.”
“I think that’s the biggest concern amongst lawmakers and law enforcement general—that it doesn’t make a medicinal marijuana bill, doesn’t become a de facto recreational marijuana bill,” he said. “That’s one of the challenges that we’ve faced over the years in trying to craft something that would help people like your dad without making it basically a recreational marijuana bill.”
“We’ve had some challenges trying to write language that’s tightened up to keep it to the medicinal purposes,” he said.
