Politics
Wisconsin Will Legalize Marijuana If Democrats Control Legislature, Governor Says, So People Can Stop Buying It Next Door In Illinois
The governor of Wisconsin says that, if Democrats take control of the legislature now that new “fair” district maps have been set, the state can “finally” legalize marijuana so that residents don’t have to go to neighboring Illinois to patronize its adult-use market.
During a speech at the Democratic Party of Wisconsin’s 2025 convention on Sunday, Gov. Tony Evers (D) said “Republicans better start getting used to Democrats being in power in the state,” as the new redistricting map he approved last year could deliver the party a “Democratic trifecta,” with control of the Assembly, Senate and governor’s office.
That would free up lawmakers to overcome roadblocks in the currently conservative legislature that have prevented the advancement of several key issues, including health care expansion, parental leave and, “yes, we could finally legalize marijuana so we can stop sending our revenue down to my good friend, [Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D)] down in Illinois,” he said.
“He’s got enough,” Evers joked.
“If we want to finally end the obstruction of Madison, we have to get to work—and we can’t wait. We have to start today,” he said. “If we want majorities that will finally get things done in the legislature, then our work starts right now.”
“We knock on doors, we make the calls, we organize from our kitchen tables to our communities—we fight back and we never stop fighting for what’s right,” the governor said. “Winning 2026 starts now. Let’s go fight to win every vote for every seat and in every election, and let’s get to work.”
Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D) also briefly touched on the issue at the convention, saying “we will also legalize cannabis” among other priorities in the Democratic agenda if the party wins a legislative majority in next year’s elections.
The governor and top Democratic senator’s comments come about a month after Republicans cut key provisions from a state budget proposal from Evers, including plans to legalize and regulate marijuana.
The actions are a repeat of two years ago, when GOP members of the same committee removed proposals to legalize cannabis for recreational and medical use from the governor’s biennial executive budget at that time.
Evers included the latest marijuana legalization plan in his biennial budget request to lawmakers in February, projecting at the time that the change would result in “$58.1 million in revenue in fiscal year 2026-27 and growing amounts in future years.”
Under current Wisconsin law, cannabis is illegal for both recreational and medical purposes.
The legalization proposal would have imposed a 15 percent wholesale excise tax and a 10 percent retail excise tax on recreational cannabis products. It would additionally “create a process for individuals serving sentences or previously convicted of marijuana-related crimes to have an opportunity to repeal or reduce their sentences for nonviolent minor offenses.”
The companion bills that were filed in tandem with the governor’s budget request stipulate that all revenue collected from the proposed cannabis taxes will be deposited into the state general fund.
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Despite Republicans’ move to cut legalization from the budget legislation, party leaders recently acknowledged that the debate over medical marijuana legalization is “not going to go away,” and there’s hope it can be resolved this session.
“I don’t think anyone is naive enough to think that marijuana and THC products aren’t present in the state of Wisconsin when they are readily available over state lines, so I think we need to come to an answer on this,” Assembly Majority Leader Rep. Tyler August (R) said in February. “I’m hopeful that we can.”
“If we’re going to call it medical marijuana, it needs to be treated like a pharmaceutical. But the marijuana debate is going to be something that is not going to go away,” Sen. Dan Feyen (R), the assistant majority leader, said at the time. “The margins are tighter.”
There have been repeated attempts to legalize medical marijuana in the legislature over recent years, including the introduction of legislation from Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R) that called for a limited program facilitated through state-run dispensaries. That proved controversial among his Republican colleagues, however, and it ultimately stalled out last year.
Evers previewed his plan to include marijuana legalization in his budget in January, while also arguing that residents of the state should be allowed to propose new laws by putting binding questions on the ballot—citing the fact that issues such as cannabis reform enjoy sizable bipartisan support while the GOP-controlled legislature has repeatedly refused to act.
Previously, in 2022, the governor signed an executive order to convene a special legislative session with the specific goal of giving people the right to put citizen initiatives on the ballot, raising hopes among advocates that cannabis legalization could eventually be decided by voters. The GOP legislature did not adopt the proposal, however.
Evers said in December that marijuana reform is one of several key priorities the state should pursue in the 2025 session, as lawmakers work with a budget surplus.
Days after he made the remarks, a survey found the reform would be welcomed by voters in rural parts of the state. Nearly two thirds (65 percent) said they support legalizing cannabis.
Last May, the governor said he was “hopeful” that the November 2024 election would lead to Democratic control of the legislature, in part because he argued it would position the state to finally legalize cannabis.
“We’ve been working hard over the last five years, several budgets, to make that happen,” he said at the time. “I know we’re surrounded by states with recreational marijuana, and we’re going to continue to do it.”
A Wisconsin Democratic Assemblymember tried to force a vote on a medical cannabis compromise proposal last year, as an amendment to an unrelated kratom bill, but he told Marijuana Moment he suspects leadership intentionally pulled that legislation from the agenda at the last minute to avoid a showdown on the issue.
Meanwhile, the state Department of Revenue released a fiscal estimate of the economic impact of a legalization bill from then-Sen. Melissa Agard (D) in 2023, projecting that the reform would generate nearly $170 million annually in tax revenue.
A legislative analysis requested by lawmakers estimated that Wisconsin residents spent more than $121 million on cannabis in Illinois alone in 2022, contributing $36 million in tax revenue to the neighboring state.
Evers and other Democrats have since at least last January insisted that they would be willing to enact a modest medical marijuana program, even if they’d prefer more comprehensive reform.
Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.
