MADISON, Wis. — After years of opposition to any type of marijuana legalization in Wisconsin, Republican lawmakers at the moment are working privately to construct help for a medical hashish program that would win bipartisan backing and be enacted into regulation later this 12 months, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos advised The Associated Press on Thursday.

For now, the group of lawmakers – who Vos declined to call – are working solely amongst Assembly Republicans to construct sufficient help, and he hopes to introduce the plan this fall. Vos has lengthy supported some type of medical marijuana program, however no invoice has ever acquired a vote in both the GOP-controlled Assembly or Senate.

Vos stated he stays steadfastly against legalizing leisure marijuana and doesn't wish to create a medical program that will be a precursor to that. Wisconsin stays an outlier nationally, with medical marijuana authorized in 38 states and leisure marijuana authorized in 21. The push for legalization in Wisconsin has gained momentum, as neighboring Illinois and Michigan permit leisure use whereas Minnesota and Iowa have legalized medical use.

“We are not Illinois. We are not California. We are not Colorado,” Vos stated in an interview. “We are a state that’s at best purple. And purple is not legalization of recreational marijuana.”

Vos’s announcement that Republicans have been engaged on a deal he hopes can go the Legislature comes on April 20 or “420 Day,” marijuana’s excessive vacation. Advocates for pot legalization deliberate to announce a “Grass Routes Tour” that can make 4 stops throughout the state to advertise hashish legalization.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers proposed full legalization of marijuana in his state price range, an concept that Republicans vowed to reject. Last 12 months, a Republican-authored invoice making a medical marijuana program acquired a public listening to on April 20, the primary time any such invoice made it that far within the GOP-controlled Legislature.

However, the invoice died in committee.

Senate Republicans have been much less open to pot legalization than these within the Assembly. But in January, Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu stated a invoice to create a medical marijuana program might go this legislative session - so long as laws are put ahead to make sure it’s for these in severe ache.

Sixty-four p.c of Wisconsinites help legalizing marijuana for any use, in accordance with October polling by the Marquette University Law School. More than 80% of Wisconsinites supported the concept of a medical marijuana program, in accordance with 2019 polling.

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