A top Wisconsin Republican lawmaker says the governor risks jeopardizing a chance to pass bipartisan legislation allowing medical cannabis if he follows though with a pledge to put broader legalization of marijuana for recreational use in his upcoming budget proposal.
While Gov. Tony Evers (D) has said that enacting a more limited medical marijuana program could represent an area of bipartisan compromise in the next session, he’s also intent on advancing broader reform. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R) says that could be a problem.
“If he really wants to generate consensus, he needs to get off his liberal bandwagon and start by saying where can we generate consensus, and that’s not by pitching the farthest extreme position,” Vos told WisPolitics.com last week.
The speaker, who has previously expressed openness to medical cannabis legalization, particularly for patients who are seeking an opioid alternative, said that if Evers follows through on putting adult-use legalization in the biennial budget request for 2023-2025, that could scare off “people like me and a whole lot of others out of saying this is not just a gateway to recreational marijuana.”
The governor, who’s recently expressed optimism about the prospects working with the GOP-controlled legislature to legalize
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