Joni Anderson (D) vs winner of Republican Primary in Senate District 14
The 14th District of the Wisconsin Senate is located in central Wisconsin, and is currently composed of parts of Adams, Columbia, Dodge, Fond du Lac, Green Lake, Marquette, Outagamie, Sauk (Wi Dells & Lake Delton), Waupaca and Waushara counties.(MAP) Advisory Referendums on Marijuana in 2018 passed 78% in Marquette County and 80% in Sauk County. Former Rep. Ballweg Constituent Surveys in 2019 had 73-83% support for marijuana reform.
Primary Election August 11, 2020
Republican Candidates
Joan Ballweg (R-Markesan): A board member for NORML has been active with marijuana reform for over a decade in her district. Both Senator Olsen and Rep. Ballweg seemed sympathetic back in 2009 while the Republicans were in the minority under a Democratic controlled legislature. 2010 changed as Republicans took control and basically killed everything marijuana related, always. Since then, Rep. Ballweg has really failed on the issue.
During 2019, Assembly Republicans worked on the issue and prefiled a bill for the 2020 legislative session to create a medical marijuana program in Wisconsin (Assembly Bill 750 / Senate Bill 683) which Rep. Ballweg (R-Markesan) failed to co-sponsor.
March 2020 Republicans circulated a decriminalization bill for co-sponsorship which she did not co-sponsor.
Position on Marijuana Legalization: Opposed
Position on Marijuana Decriminalization: Opposed
Position on Medical Marijuana: Opposed
Candidate Comments: “I believe any valid medicinal benefits from this plant should be studied and used. We now have authorization of CBD oil for seizures and additional treatment options could be found.
However, we should not be promoting products for smoking, given the effects on individual and public health. THC contained in the product does impair individuals on the road and in the workplace.
Those promoting medical marijuana claim it is an effective substitute for prescription opioids, and prescriptions have been reduced because of legalization. But actually, because of the awareness of addiction all states have seen prescriptions of opioids go down, including 30 percent in Wisconsin.” 10/9/18
Joan Ballweg (Campaign Website) (Campaign Facebook) (NORML Legislative Scorecard)
UPDATE for 2020:On July 13, 2020, WisconsinEye senior producer Steve Walters interviewed Joan Ballweg (R-Markesan) who is running for the 14th Senate District in the upcoming partisan primary election and here is the video below archived and cued up right on the spot where she has the cannabis conversation.
Sept 16th, 2020 Ballweg said this during the forum:
Should medical marijuana be legalized in Wisconsin?
Ballweg: “I’m not ready to legalize medical marijuana at this point, but I think we probably ought to take a look at it based on something that we did over the last couple of years to try to bring into medical use CBD oil … It still needs to probably have some regulation and oversight to make sure that the products people are getting are correct, but what I would hope to do over the next session is to work with healthcare providers to find out what are the situations where we would most likely find relief for their patients when it comes to medical marijuana.”
OR
Republican Ken Van Dyke from Scandinavia. (Campaign Facebook) (email: kenvandykewissenatedistrict14@gmail.com)
On July 28, 2020, WisconsinEye senior producer Steve Walters interviewed Ken Van Dyke, Sr. (R-Scandanavia) who is running for the 14th Senate District in the upcoming partisan primary election.
It appears Ken Van Dyke read a pre-written statement when asked the marijuana question by the interviewer. His response was in that Wisconsin needs to take caution, he thinks medical marijuana is on the table, the step to full legalization needs to taken more cautiously if at all, because we just spent several decades telling people not to smoke and now we are saying its ok. On the positive side other comments he heard is it would offer farmers a profitable cash crop, tax revenue and job creation. But will it cause more problems then it is worth, any promoting full legalization has a lot more convincing to do.
VS
Democrat Joni Anderson from Adams (Campaign Facebook) (Campaign Website) provided a complete statement on marijuana reform and has publicly supported the legalization of both Medicinal and Recreational Cannabis. The campaign website highlights marijuana reform as an important issue.
| Please provide a position statement regarding legalizing the medical use of marijuana: |
| People should not have to go outside the law to use marijuana for pain or other medicinal issues. Also, they should not have to spend huge amounts of money on prescription pain killers when they can control their pain naturally through the use of medicinal marijuana. |
| Please provide a position statement regarding decriminalizing the simple possession of marijuana. |
| Decriminalizing the simple possession of marijuana would allow us to keep people out of our jails and prison systems, and take us a step forward toward hopefully racial equality. |
| Please provide a position statement regarding automatic expungement of non-violent marijuana possession convictions. |
| Right now people’s lives are ruined, and our jails full of people that should not be there. This would provide a positive step forward for people to start over without a simple possession charge following them forever |
| Please provide a position statement regarding legalizing and regulating the responsible use of marijuana by adults. |
| It only makes sense to treat it like this. Other states such as Illinois and Michigan are taking advantage of both job creation and tax revenue. We should be doing the same. |
Anderson: “I think it’s time that we legalize medical and recreational marijuana. People need to be able to control their pain without having to buy expensive opiate drugs and possibly even become addicted to them. Some people when they have to buy the opioid drugs for pain killing, they just never are able to have control of their pain … We need to provide this route for the people. States like Illinois, and Michigan already have it, and …they’re reaping the tax benefits. People go across the state lines to buy these drugs; why should we be giving the tax money to these states?” – source
Primary Election is Tuesday August 11, 2020 and
General Election is Tuesday November 3rd, 2020.
Learn more about how to register to vote at https://norml.org/act/register-to-vote or MyVote.wi.gov
Learn more about requesting an absentee ballot / voting by mail at MyVote.Wi.Gov
