The end of marijuana prohibition is within sight, as pro-cannabis Democrats now have a majority in the House and the Senate and control of the White House, but Wisconsin is still lagging behind. Governor Tony Evers’ upcoming budget proposal might be the way for the Badger State to step out of the increasingly short list of states that refuse to step into the 21st century.
In an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Evers revealed that he is considering including the legalization of recreational marijuana in his upcoming budget, which will run from July 2021 through June 2023. He cites the desire to boost state revenue, and it is part of a larger effort from the governor’s office to reform criminal justice, especially as it relates to (the lack of) racial justice in Wisconsin. It is not the first time that Evers has attempted to force cannabis reform through the budget: In 2019, he attempted to legalize medical marijuana that way, but the Republican-controlled legislature shot it down in the final bill. This year, Tony Evers has the chance to go harder, and he seems willing to be bolder, which is what Wisconsin needs.
Marijuana prohibition has always been a source of systemic racism, as black Americans are searched and arrested at dramatically higher rates than white people despite similar rates of use. In states that have legalized adult-use marijuana, additional state revenue from regulated legal marijuana amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars. Colorado, which has a population nearly identical to Wisconsin’s, surpassed $1 billion in revenue from legal weed sales since 2014. Such income would be direly needed in a COVID economy.
Cannabis’ Illegality Is Counterproductive
“There are so many reasons why cannabis should be legal,” says Andrew Hysell of the Wisconsin Cannabis Association. “It has been misclassified. A number of states have recognized that cannabis has a lot of medical uses… It is a cultural bias that has been ingrained, and it is taking some time to be addressed.
“Support for legalization cuts across all political demographics and across all economic categories. The reason why it is not legal yet is this remaining cultural bias against it,” he adds. When in 2018, 16 Wisconsin counties and two cities led a non-binding referendum on marijuana legalization, nearly a million voters voted yes to the reform of cannabis laws. Not a single county or city, even the deep-red ones, saw less than 60% of the vote going in favor of legal pot. In Racine County, which went to Donald Trump in the last presidential election, 84.8% voted in favor of legalization. The support for legal weed is not just bipartisan; it is positively overwhelming on both sides of the political spectrum.
The Wisconsin Legislature is still standing in the way, however, at the behest of the Republican Party, which made a point to reject all forms of cannabis reform in their 2020 platform.
“There’s just a disconnect generally between what people want and what their elected officials are doing,” Hysell deplores. He refuses to see the issue in terms of Democrats versus Republicans, preferring to see it as a “status quo versus reform” issue between those holding on to the anti-weed cultural bias and those who know enough to overcome it. If there is a path ahead, he says, it will be by spreading awareness about cannabis legalization, especially regarding the boons it can bring to a state like Wisconsin.
“The governor has a unique chance to include full legalization in his 2021 budget, which would be a great stride for the state, and the legislature has an amazing opportunity this year to promote the economy of this state,” Hysell says. “One of the biggest beneficiaries of marijuana legalization in Colorado was the real estate industry, because there are all these opportunities to generate revenue from these new entities. HVAC businesses have seen a boom because you have to regulate the temperature and humidity to grow marijuana. This is growing, helping businesses and creating new jobs that pay living wages. We want the business interests in Wisconsin to become aware of these opportunities so that they will ask legislators to support it.”
Some are afraid of the idea that cannabis is a drug, but legalizing it means regulating it, monitoring it closely and ensuring the quality and safety of every person involved, as is the case with the countless other legal substances with potential for abuse. He sees increased support for reform even in the legislature.
“A lot of things have changed since the last budget. Since 2019, Michigan and Illinois, as well as our northern neighbor, Canada, have legalized adult-use cannabis. They are benefitting so much—not just from their own residents, but also from Wisconsinites crossing the border to purchase marijuana. How long are we going to continue to deprive the state of this revenue?”
What if Evers does not push legalization through the budget this summer, then? Given the new composition of the federal executive and legislative branches, and if Wisconsin legislators remain stubborn, cannabis laws might be federally reformed before our state can act. In that case, Andrew Hysell estimates, we would be “kind of screwed. Other states will have already established industries and the growing capacity to outcompete us.”
He continues: “Michigan already had medical and had time to wrap their head around the issue, and it took them more than a year to produce regulations for adult-use. What would happen is that all these other states would have it all worked out—the rules, the safety procedures, the equity plans, the licensing process—and they will be ready to go when the feds legalize it. Wisconsin won’t be ready. I don’t know why we would do that to our businesses and our farmers.”
