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Is My Medicine Legal YET? - RELEASE: Wisconsin Assembly passes CBD medical marijuana bill, Dane voters say full legalization way to go
For immediate release: Wednesday, April 2, 2014
Contact: Gary Storck, co-founder/director of communications,
Is My Medicine Legal Yet? www.IMMLY.org
608-241-8922
Wisconsin Senate passes CBD medical marijuana bill, Dane voters say full legalization way to go
April 1 was a historic day for Wisconsin marijuana law reform efforts. In the early evening, the state Senate overwhelmingly passed narrowly focused medical marijuana legislation, and in Spring elections held the same day, Dane County voters passed Advisory Referendum #2, asking state lawmakers to enact legislation legalizing marijuana, by a 65/35% margin.
IMMLY is pleased that after so many years of advocacy that Wisconsin lawmakers have now passed medical marijuana legislation by a near unanimous margin on a bipartisan basis. While AB726 is very limited in its scope, passage demonstrates that an overwhelming majority of Wisconsin lawmakers now understand that medical marijuana is real. IMMLY urges Gov. Scott Walker to sign AB726 into law at his earliest convenience.
The Dane vote once again demonstrates that Wisconsin citizens are ahead of the people who represent us in the state legislature when it comes to marijuana policy. While lawmakers voted for limited medical marijuana legalization, citizens voted to legalize marijuana for all use, medical, recreational/adult use and industrial hemp.
In Nov. 2010, Dane County voters supported lawmakers passing a state medical marijuana bill by a 75.49% margin, with River Falls voters okaying the same question by a 68% margin. Polling has long found overwhelming support for medical marijuana in Wisconsin going back over a dozen years.
While IMMLY's preferred legislation is AB480/SB363, the Jacki Rickert Medical Cannabis Act (JRMCA), authored by Sen. Jon Erpenbach (D-Middleton) and Rep, Chris Taylor, (D-Madison), any legislation that eases the fear for patients who need medical cannabis is a step forward. IMMLY thanks Sen. Erpenbach for speaking out for "thousands of Wisconsin patients" left out by the narrowly focused legislation during discussion of the bill on the Senate floor before passage. With their new respect for the medicinal powers of marijuana, let us hope state lawmakers return in 2015 ready to move forward with more marijuana law reform measures. The public is waiting.
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