Wisconsin’s Governor, Tony Evers, is mulling over including cannabis legalization to next year’s budget proposal as a way of boosting tax proceeds amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
During a recent interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Tony said that recreational legalization had been tabled despite the lawmaker’s opposition concerning previous cannabis reforms.
Although Tony tried to get cannabis possession and medical cannabis legalized through the 2019 budget, republican legislators interdicted those reforms from the final expenditure reform. This has created concerns on how the Wisconsin Governor would tackle the matter this time.
Evers called out the legislature for its failure to take action on more incremental policy changes at the onset of 2020, pointing out the strong public support for medicinal marijuana legalization.
In his yearly State address, he said that when over 80% of Wisconsinites support medical cannabis and elected representatives to ignore such numbers, then something isn’t right.
Wisconsin lawmakers submitted a proposal in 2019 to expunge criminal convictions for possessions not exceeding 28g of cannabis, however, it never advanced.
Local voters have been making a clear opinion regarding marijuana reform in the previous years. In three territories, they passed non-binding advisory concerns in support of cannabis authorization last year.
This came after Wisconsinites throughout the state strongly embraced cannabis policy change through supporting similar reforms in the midterm election of 2018.
City administrators in Wisconsin’s capital voted in November to extricate most cannabis penalties for consumption and possession; thus, proficiently enabling marijuana use by 18 and older adults.
As the United States eases into 2021, Evers is one of the many governors with cannabis on their minds.
Andrew Cuomo, New York’s governor, has tried twice since 2018 to pass MJ authorization via the budget and plans to feature it in his request come 2021.
Early December, Ralph Northam (Virginia’s Governor) launched a budget reform that gives a layout of legalizing cannabis.
