A Republican plan to legalize just medical marijuana in Wisconsin is dead

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Republican proposal to legalize medical marijuana in Wisconsin is dead.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said Thursday that there will still be a public hearing to build support for passage next session, but it won’t occur until after the Legislature has adjourned for the year — which occurs in about a month and a half.

That means no bills to legalize would happen with this legislature, unless it called an extraordinary session.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers voiced support for legalizing medical marijuana as a step toward full legalization. He’s put into his budget multiple times, legalizing recreational marijuana — something Democrats in the Legislature have supported for years.

The GOP measure drew opposition for being too conservative in severely limiting who could have access to medical marijuana and how it would be distributed. Meanwhile, others faulted it for not going far enough.

Senate Republicans objected to having state-run dispensaries.

“We see that the Senate wants to have a more liberal version than the one that we’re willing to pass,” Vos said at a news conference. The votes remain to pass the original Assembly version, Vos said, but it won’t come up for a vote before the Assembly ends its session for the year next week.

The highly restrictive bill would limit medical marijuana to severely ill people and allow for it to be dispensed at just five state-run locations. Smokable marijuana would not be allowed.

Wisconsin remains an outlier nationally. Thirty-eight states have legalized medical marijuana and 24 have legalized recreational marijuana, including Minnesota and Michigan. Canada also has legalized recreational marijuana.

The proposal would limit the availability of marijuana to people diagnosed with certain diseases, including cancer, HIV or AIDS, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease, severe muscle spasms, chronic pain or nausea, and those with a terminal illness and less than a year to live.