Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin, one of the few remaining U.S. states that hasn’t authorized some form of marijuana, are working on a bill to legalize medical cannabis, according to GOP leadership.
A viable MMJ proposal could be publicly introduced as soon as this fall after it has been workshopped behind closed doors, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos told the Associated Press.
Republicans control both chambers of the Wisconsin Legislature.
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has tried to legalize adult-use marijuana through the state budget process, only to be thwarted by GOP lawmakers.
Evers has said he’d sign a medical marijuana bill into law if the Legislature were to pass one.
Vos told the AP that he remains steadfastly opposed to full legalization and would oppose any MMJ plan that is a “precursor” to an adult-use market.
“We are not Illinois. We are not California. We are not Colorado,” he said.
Wisconsin is an outlier in the upper Midwest, where adult-use sales are legal in nearby Illinois and Michigan and MMJ is legal in some form in Iowa and Minnesota.
