For the first time ever, legislation aimed at legalizing medical cannabis may have a chance at passing the Wisconsin Legislature this session.
Currently, Wisconsin is one of only 10 states that does not allow individuals suffering from debilitating pain, disease, and other severe health problems to treat their condition with medical cannabis.
As a cannabis attorney with nearly a decade of experience in Minnesota, I have lost track of the number of individuals and families who have espoused the wonders of medical cannabis. I have met with countless mothers (and fathers) who told me that their children (who suffer from seizure disorders, epilepsy or similar ailments) were only able to return to formal educational settings after treating their school-age children with medical cannabis. Often, children (and others) treated with medical cannabis do not get “high” but require access to elevated concentrations of THC to experience relief.
Medical cannabis works. What’s Wisconsin waiting for?
In Minnesota, chronic pain is the condition that inflicts nearly 50% of those folks on our medical-cannabis registry. Military veterans suffering from PTSD also comprise a significant portion of Minnesotans who use medical cannabis. Alcoholism, opioid-use disorder and other addictions can also be successfully treated with medical cannabis.
While it may still be controversial in some circles, the efficacy of medical cannabis is undisputed. Over the three decades since California first legalized medical cannabis, researchers have compiled overwhelming data, medical research, and the lived experiences of millions of Americans who have found relief from conditions ranging from chronic pain and cancer to PTSD and epilepsy.
What is Wisconsin waiting for?
Republican state lawmakers in the Senate and Assembly are shepherding the bill. Gov. Tony Evers would likely sign it if it reaches his desk.
At the federal level, it is widely anticipated that President Trump may soon sign an Executive Order moving marijuana from Schedule I of the federal controlled substances to Schedule III, which would recognize the medical value of marijuana.
Although such rescheduling would not change the federal illegality of marijuana, decades of federal policy pronouncements indicate that so long as a state enacts regulatory protections, the federal government will not interfere with a state’s decision to legalize medical cannabis.
Legalizing medical marijuana is about compassion, not control
Notably, the legislation currently under debate in the Wisconsin Legislature does not allow recreational use. Rather, it merely allows doctors and patients another treatment option. When traditional pharmaceutical medicines fail or produce insufferable side effects, medical cannabis often is an effective alternative.
Under the proposed legislation, Wisconsin’s medical cannabis program would be tightly regulated and subjected to close scrutiny.
In the absence of a state-regulated medical-cannabis program, Wisconsinites often attempt to self-medicate by turning to the illicit market, taking risks on unregulated products and engaging in desperate attempts to alleviate their suffering without the oversight of a medical professional.
By legalizing medical cannabis, Wisconsin lawmakers could replace that chaos with accountability, oversight and compassion.
There is vast public support for legalizing medical cannabis in Wisconsin. Separate polls conducted over the last two years by Marquette University Law School, NORML and the Marijuana Policy Project each concluded that 80-85 percent of registered Wisconsin voters favor the legalization of medical cannabis.
This is not a partisan issue — it’s a moral one. For too long, the stigma associated with cannabis has prevented Wisconsin legislators from doing the right thing. The time to change that is now.
Jason Tarasek is a cannabis attorney and lobbyist in Minneapolis. As a partner with Vicente LLP, a national cannabis law firm, Jason represents clients through the Upper Midwest, including Wisconsin.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Medical cannabis use should be approved in Wisconsin. It’s about compassion. | Opinion
Reporting by Jason Tarasek / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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