From WisPolitics.com/WisBusiness.com …
— Republican authors of a medical marijuana legalization bill today rejected the argument that it would inevitably lead to legal recreational marijuana in Wisconsin as medical professionals raised concerns.
Senate President Sen. Mary Felzkowski, R-Tomahawk, during a Senate Health Committee public hearing that was ongoing at the time of publication pointed to Hawaii’s decision in 2000 to become one of the first states to pass a medical cannabis program. The state still has not legalized recreational marijuana.
“Our constituents have asked us to take this step for years, with 86% favoring legal medical cannabis in a 2024 Marquette University Law Poll,” she said.
This isn’t the first time the Legislature has taken up the issue. Committee member Sen. Jeff Smith, D-Brunswick, recalled U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, authoring one of the first medical marijuana proposals when she was in the state Assembly. Baldwin has been in Congress since 1999.
The latest version of the proposal from Sens. Felzkowski, and Pat Testin, R-Stevens Point, and Rep. Pat Snyder, R-Weston, would create a program to license growers, processors, labs and dispensaries.
The rub last year over legalizing medical marijuana was over how dispensaries should be treated.
Assembly Speaker Rep. Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said the facilities would have to be state-run. Senate Republicans balked.
Assembly bill author Rep. Patrick Snyder, R-Weston, urged his Assembly colleagues to at least give the bill a committee hearing.
“You’ve got to do the right thing, and I’m just getting frustrated,” he said. “This is my ninth year. I don’t know if there’ll be another session.”
Wisconsin Societies of Medicine’s Dr. Ritu Bhatnagar, an addiction psychiatrist, raised concerns that the measure doesn’t make medical marijuana safe.
“My concern is, if we move too quickly … we are missing an opportunity to protect and provide for Wisconsinites,” she said.
She said she and her colleagues are concerned over the lack of: formal education requirements for those diagnosing, prescribing and dispensing medical marijuana; quality control and potency regulation; safeguards in packaging requirements; and ways to address impaired driving.
The bill doesn’t specify any specific certifications or education requirements. The bill’s language requires dispensaries have “at least one pharmacist who, through education, training, and experience, is qualified to advise patients and caregivers on appropriate uses and dosages of medical cannabis products and potential interactions between medical cannabis products and other drugs …”
SB 534 does not include any mention of state-run dispensaries. Rather, dispensary licenses would only be given to those who live in Wisconsin or offices where at least 80% of the company’s board members are Wisconsinites. Licensees would also have to prove to the state their facilities have “sufficient security features,” among other requirements.
Dispensaries would only be able to provide patients up to a 30-day supply of cannabis the first time patients picks up their subscription. They’d be able to provide up to 90-days’ supply after that.
Dispensary licenses would cost $5,000 per year.
Only those 18 and older would be able to get a medical marijuana card after paying a $20 fee. Anyone convicted of a felony would have their card revoked.
The list of medical conditions that would qualify someone for a card include cancer, seizures or epilepsy, glaucoma, severe chronic pain, severe muscle spasms, severe chronic nausea, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease and any terminal illness with a probable life expectancy of less than a year.
— Health care costs could balloon because of Republicans’ budget decisions, former Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Director Chiquita Brooks-LaSure argued today.
Brooks-LaSure during a virtual news conference today hosted by the state Democratic Party said Republicans’ actions and inactions could cause “sticker shock” as early as Nov. 1 when people enroll in health insurance coverage through healthcare.gov. For example, a family of four earning $64,000 a year would see their annual premiums increase by almost $3,000, she said.
More than 300,000 Wisconsinites enroll in health insurance online health insurance marketplace.
Brooks-LaSure argued no Wisconsinite should have to forego health care coverage because it’s too costly. She added that people across the country deserve a system that’s affordable and accessible, “rather than a health care system that forces them to choose between coverage or affording groceries.”
“Yet the Republican tax law and congressional Republicans’ decision to not renew the critical health insurance subsidies for marketplace enrollees has sent us down a trajectory that will mean Americans, some as early as this fall, could face this reality and make the difficult choices to affect their care,” she said. “That said, this is not inevitable. I hope that the members of Congress will make a different decision.”
— Wisconsin saw a 26% increase in lead testing among children last year after the Department of Health Services updated its blood-lead testing recommendations.
DHS last year began recommending all children age 1 and 2 should be tested and screened for possible lead exposure, which the department says resulted in 99,500 children under the age of 6 being tested. Testing also found more than 4,800 children had lead poisoning. Identifying children with lead poisoning helps with treatment and education, DHS said.
“Catching lead exposures early is vital in preventing lasting health impacts. Lead exposure during childhood can have lasting impacts, including reduced IQ, behavioral challenges, slowed growth, and delayed speech,” Paula Tran, state health officer and administrator of the Division of Public Health, said.
See the release here.
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