End Prohibition

 End Prohibition

Legalize Marijuana

 

The time has come for the GOP controlled state legislature to legalize both medical and recreational marijuana.

 

A 2019 Marquette University Law School poll found that 83% of Wisconsin residents favored legalizing medical marijuana. A 2022 Marquette poll shows that 61% of Wisconsin residents favor legalization of recreational marijuana with majorities from both pollical party respondents polled favoring legalization. 

 

Governor Evers proposed both measures in his most recent state budget proposal only to have them axed by a single vote in the GOP controlled Joint Finance Committee on May 2^nd.

 

Wisconsin is surrounded by states seeing the benefits of legalized marijuana. Illinois legalized both and saw increased tax revenues and decreased crime rates. Cannabis dispensaries close to our border have drained millions from Wisconsin pocketbooks as state residents flock to Mundelein and South Beloit to buy marijuana products. Michigan also legalized, and one does not have to drive far into the UP to find a dispensary. Michigan tax revenues have also jumped from regulated sales. Minnesota just passed its legalization bill which awaits Governor Walz’ already promised signature. One can expect cannabis dispensaries along the Minnesota side of the Mississippi River will soon follow. 

 

Meanwhile, our GOP controlled legislature continues to wage the already lost War on Drugs and continues the myth that marijuana is a gateway drug to harmful drugs like heroin, meth, and cocaine. They also appear willing to forego the tax revenues other states gladly receive from our citizens daily. Projections of potential tax revenue from legalized marijuana sales could raise enough money for Wisconsin to fully fund its obligation to our public-school systems among other needed priorities.

 

It is not like our legislature doesn’t know what to pass. The new Minnesota law is a great place to start the copy and paste. It provides that adults, 21 and over, can possess up to two pounds of marijuana. Minnesotans will be able to cultivate up to eight plants on their property as soon as August 1. Over the next year a new Office of Cannabis Management will put together regulations governing the sale of recreational pot which will be taxed at 10% of recreational sales. Edibles containing THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, are already available at CBD stores there.  Twenty percent of the tax revenues collected will go to cities and counties across the state. 

 

The Minnesota plan also contains provisions expunging misdemeanor marijuana convictions and for reviewing more serious cannabis convictions. It also contains measures aimed at correcting problems created during the century of prohibition where communities of color were disproportionally targeted by drug law enforcement actions.

 

Many have long realized that the marijuana prohibition has done more harm than good. I was Assistant Legal Counsel for the Pennsylvania chapter of NORML, the National Organization of Marijuana Laws, and testified before that state’s legislature in support of legalized medical marijuana and limited recreational use in 1978. My criminal defense legal practice often challenged draconian marijuana laws with expert medical testimony on its safety and efficacy for certain medical conditions. The effort to legalize is certainly not a new one.

 

Federal law still classifies marijuana in the same category as heroin and other far more serious drugs creating a complete disconnect in those states which have legalized marijuana. Yes, the Feds can still bust you for cannabis in states where it is legal under state laws. The Federal and state prohibitions date back to the 1920s when Harry Anslinger first convinced Congress that marijuana was the devil incarnate, leading to perversion of our youth from jazz music, free sex, and overall licentiousness. Our legislators still must think these outmoded notions hold true. Thankfully, the U.S. Department of Justice has toned down marijuana enforcement activities and the Drug Enforcement Agency is starting to look at reclassifying marijuana to reduce applicable penalties. 

 

I was recently reminded of a story told to me by a grower friend in the 1970s. He wanted to plant a marijuana patch on his parents’ ranch in Texas. When my friend visited his folks to ask permission, his father asked, “it that stuff is as good as they say it is?” My friend replied by offering his dad a joint. After smoking it, his father retired to their front porch and sat in his favorite rocker as the sun set. My friend joined his dad on the porch where they sat in silence watching the sun go down. The father’s first comment was, “plant it.”

 

It is long past time for Wisconsin to join the rest of the states that have legalized, regulated, and taxed recreational marijuana sales and decriminalized possession and sales. 

Deadlock

 Fiscal Deadlocks Impede Progress

 

While the House GOP alt-right holds the country’s economy hostage refusing to authorize payment of the country’s bills in search of spending cuts that would gut President Biden’s progress and plans, their counterparts in Wisconsin recently voted to gut Governor Evers budget plans for the next two years.

 

Wisconsin’s legislative Joint Finance Committee, controlled by the gerrymandered GOP, recently took up Governor Evers proposed budget and promptly axed over 500 items, many of which are popular with a majority of voters across the state. 

 

Among the items removed from the budget process were proposals to legalize marijuana, create paid family leave, expand Medicaid eligibility, and pay for renovations to American Family Field, home of the Milwaukee Brewers. Also cut were proposals for a 10% income tax cut for middle- and low-income wage earners, $270 million for mental health providers in public schools, freezing enrollment in the private school voucher program, raising the minimum wage, starting an automatic voter registration program, and repealing Wisconsin’s so-called “Right to Work” law and Act 10 which stripped public sector unions of their ability to collectively bargain. 

 

The Joint Finance Committee also stripped proposals requiring legislators to keep their emails as public records, extending Milwaukee’s bar hours during the GOP’s national convention, subsidizing UW System tuition for low-income students, creating an office in the Wisconsin Elections Commission to deal with misinformation and open records requests, and rebuilding Wisconsin’s teacher workforce.

 

Other proposals cut from Evers’ budget proposal include funding for schools to replace racist school mascots, funding for school literacy and computer science programs, and requirements for schools to keep medications to reverse drug overdoses on hand. Joint Finance members also eliminated some of the proposed funding to deal with PFAS and other ground water contaminants found across the state. 

 

Trying to add more transparency to the legislative process, Evers proposed elimination of the anonymous objection process in the Joint Finance Committee by requiring legislators who block environmental stewardship proposals to be identified. The Committee deleted this one as well. 

 

Evers budget proposed spending some of the record $7 billion surplus on these and other voter popular items resulting in no need for raising taxes. 

 

After the Joint Finance Committee’s vote, liberal and progressive groups around the state pushed back by calling on Evers to veto the budget that the GOP controlled legislature will pass in its entirety while others urged a drastic use of Evers’ line-item veto to rewrite the GOP budget. 

 

The sausage making process for the state’s budget will continue into the Summer. Hopefully it will get finished by the end of the fiscal year in June. If it does not, then the state will continue to operate under the current budget until a new one is agreed upon.

 

Meanwhile in the nation’s capital, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy continues to struggle with holding his fragile coalition together as the country heads towards default on its debts. To get elected Speaker, McCarthy had to give more authority to the House Freedom caucus than he wanted, and the result sticks him with their demands for steep federal spending cuts to pass legislation raising the debt limit so we can pay bills for already incurred goods and services. 

 

The United States has never defaulted on its debts. The constitution requires the government pay its bills. If we default, economists across the political spectrum warn of dire economic consequences globally and at home while the administration listed a host of debts that won’t get paid starting June 1 if the debt limit is not raised by Congress. Included are the Social Security checks many of us depend upon for basic living necessities, services for veterans, maintenance on government infrastructure and a host of other government services everyday Americans depend on. 

 

A recent meeting of House and Senate leaders and President Biden showed McCarthy stands alone with the spending cut demands. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnel indicated that he supports a clean debt limit bill without condition. Biden stands firm, refusing to negotiate about any conditions to raising the debt limit as every Congress has done before. He promised to talk about spending as part of budget negotiations while the House GOP cannot agree on what a budget they could pass might resemble. 

 

Several constitutional scholars have raised the idea that Biden can bypass Congress and pay the bills already incurred by executive authority under the Constitution. So far, Biden has resisted going that far into uncharted waters but hinted that it might be on the table. 

 

The political stalemates in Wisconsin and the nation’s capital do little to move us forward and do nothing but highlight how divided we have become. Governing a large population with different views has always been a challenge. Hopefully, our representatives will learn once more that compromise works better than winner take all.