Medical Cannabis Bill Introduced in Wisconsin
MADISON, Wis. — A ray of hope for those suffering from certain medical conditions as legislators introduce a bill that would legalize medical marijuana in Wisconsin. Senators Jon Erpenbach (D) and Patrick Testin (D) along with Rep. Chris Taylor (R) introduced the bill on Friday.
I have read the Medical-Cannabis-Bill-Draft. As of my first reading, I don’t feel it is a terrible attempt at creating a system for the production, distribution and use of medical marijuana. It is however very basic and does contain language that I don’t agree with.
The disagreement I have is with the following language: “DHS must issue a qualified applicant a registry identification card unless, in the previous ten years the applicant was serving a sentence or on probation for certain violent felony convictions.” If this is considered medicine, I don’t think we should go down the road of withholding medicine to punish people. I don’t feel we should get into the business of deciding who has access to a better quality/quantity of life. Today it is violent felons and tomorrow it becomes people on public assistance. That isn’t the kind of world I want to live in. That is something that is becoming all too common in this country and it is quite unbecoming.
Beyond that, I think this has the potential to be a pretty big step for Wisconsin in the right direction. It may even be an indicator that our legislature is finally beginning to realize that there is a movement building and continued prohibition could be a career ending stand for many in its ranks. I am cautiously optimistic that some of the hard work being done by so many is finally starting to pay off. Is this the first leak before the levy breaks? There is a still a long road ahead of us and a lot of work that remains. Even so, the increasing number of such bills being passed around our legislature is evidence the topic is starting to take some priority which is promising. We need to keep pushing ever forward and keep the pressure on our legislature to do the right thing.