Jacki Rickert Medical Cannabis Act gets Senate bill number and committee

IMMLY update on the Jacki Rickert Medical Cannabis Act

Jacki Rickert Medical Cannabis Act gets Senate bill number and committee

SB 363 legislative info page with links to bill draft:
(http://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2013/proposals/REG/SB363)

The Senate version of the Jacki Rickert Medical Cannabis Act has now been given a bill number, SB 363 assigned to the Committee on Health and Human Services. The committee has five members, three Republicans and two Democrats.

The committee chair is Sen. Leah Vukmir, a longtime anti-cannabis extremist as is the vice chair Sen. Terry Moulton and the third Republican, Sen. Mary Lazich.

One of the Democrats is the lead Senate sponsor of SB 363, Senator Jon Erpenbach. The other Democrat is Senator Tim Carpenter. After the combined health committee hearing for the 2009-2010 Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act, Sen. Carpenter proposed an amendment removing home cultivation from the bill and said he would not support the bill in committee unless his amendment was adopted. The bill later died in committee.

While the current legislative majority may be cool to medical cannabis, public opinion is on the side of medical cannabis. Support for medical cannabis hovers around 80% and Gallup recently found 58% of Americans support outright legalization of cannabis. Sen. Vukmir's hysterics at the Dec. 15, 2009 combined hearing, captured by WI Eye and on also in clips on You Tube, shows how out of touch her and her colleagues are.

Our best strategy is to focus on the committee members (outside of Sen. Erpenbach as he is the sponsor in the Senate) and attempt to educate them that times have changed and opposing the JRMCA only risks making them look out of touch even to voters of their own party who support medical cannabis by a large majority too.

As of this writing the Assembly version does not yet have a bill number and committee assignment.

Below are the committee members and their contact info:

Committee on Health and Human Services

Senator Vukmir (Chair)

District Number 5
Senator Leah Vukmir
(R-Wauwatosa)
sen.vukmir@legis.wisconsin.gov
(608) 266-2512 Capitol 131 South

Senator Moulton (Vice-Chair)

District Number 23
Senator Terry Moulton
(R-Chippewa Falls)
sen.moulton@legis.wisconsin.gov
(608) 266-7511 Capitol 306 South

Senator Lazich

District Number 28
Senator Mary Lazich
(R-New Berlin)
sen.lazich@legis.wisconsin.gov
(608) 266-5400 Capitol 8 South

Senator Carpenter

District Number 3
Senator Tim Carpenter
(D-Milwaukee)
sen.carpenter@legis.wisconsin.gov
(608) 266-8535 Capitol 109 South

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Senator Erpenbach (Senate sponsor of SB 363)

District Number 27
Senator Jon Erpenbach
(D-Middleton)
sen.erpenbach@legis.wisconsin.gov
(608) 266-6670 Capitol 104 South