Medical experts argue a Republican-authored medical marijuana bill lacks safeguards while advocates say it would provide relief.
Senate President Sen. Mary Felzkowski, R-Tomahawk, during a Senate Health Committee public hearing 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 …”
Peter Swan, who owns a hemp cannabis store in Pewaukee, argued the measure is “too restrictive,” adding it shouldn’t outlaw smokeable marijuana. He also raised concerns that ADHD and similar conditions wouldn’t alone qualify someone for medical marijuana.
“We need to prioritize mental health and accept the fact that cannabis does have potential to help improve the quality of life of people like myself,” he added. “Thankfully, we have a booming hemp community here in Wisconsin, where myself and many others can find federally legal THC.”
Others, such as Nora Lowe and her family, argued the bill would help provide medical relief.
Lowe, a 17-year-old who suffers from a neurological disorder called Rett syndrome, said her friends who have the same disorder and are able to get medical marijuana are able to sleep through the night and get relief from painful muscle spasms. It also helps improve their communications skills as well as regulate their movements and breathing patterns.
“I want that,” she said through a speech assistance program. “I want my breath holding episodes to stop. I believe that I deserve the same opportunities to improve my quality of life. Don’t you?”
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.
