What's keeping Wisconsin from legalizing marijuana? (And is it REALLY the Tavern League?)
New story at Milwaukee Record.
The Recombobulation Area is a ten-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written, edited and published by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.
All over the Midwest, states are legalizing recreational marijuana. Since 2018, Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, Minnesota and most recently Ohio have taken steps to legalize it. Since 2016, Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota have legalized medical marijuana. Wisconsin and Indiana are the only remaining holdouts in the region. Wisconsin is one of just 12 U.S. states with no comprehensive cannabis policy.
That could be changing…somewhat. Assembly Republicans are proposing a new, very limited medical marijuana legalization program that GOP leaders have characterized as among the most restrictive in the country.
It seems like we’re going out of our way to do everything but the main thing that makes the most sense — recreational legalization.
So what is it that’s stopping Wisconsin from joining its neighbors and legalizing marijuana? And is it really the Tavern League?
Let’s recombobulate.
Read the column at Milwaukee Record here.
BONUS: Paid subscribers can listen to my interview with State Sen. Melissa Agard (D - Madison), perhaps the legislature’s foremost advocate for marijuana legalization.
PODCAST: State Sen. Melissa Agard on marijuana legalization in Wisconsin
Agard has been working to legalize marijuana for many years in Wisconsin. She says Republican leadership is the biggest obstacle to full recreational legalization in the state.
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Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 17 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.
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Anytime I listen to people like Agard, I get a little bit more hopeful for this place. Then I remember that incredibly unserious people like Vos are in still in office...
It would be AMAZING if the Tavern League decided instead to take a proposal for business to the Republicans to allow them to put it on offer ALONGSIDE alcohol in bars.