Republican Candidate For Wisconsin Governor Says He’s ‘Open’ To Marijuana Legalization

A newly announced Republican candidate for governor of Wisconsin said this
week that he’s “open to considering different opportunities” when it comes
to legalizing medical or adult-use marijuana in the state, though he has
provided little in the way of specifics so far.

“I would be open to considering different opportunities there,”
manufacturing company CEO Bill Berrien, a former Navy SEAL, told the
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in an interview published on Wednesday
announcing his campaign. “Maybe around taking THC-infused drinks and
pushing those tax funds towards corporate attraction, business attraction,
business investment. So, open to considering some of those ideas.”

The report didn’t elaborate on how Berrien might use tax revenue from THC
beverages to attract business investment.

For now, cannabis remains illegal in Wisconsin for both medical and adult
use.

Berrien in the new interview also described himself as generally in line
with President Donald Trump’s actions during his second term. It’s not
clear what that might mean in terms of cannabis policy, as reform actions
in Congress and within the executive branch have broadly stalled since
Trump returned to office earlier this year.

The only other declared Republican candidate in the gubernatorial primary
is Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann, who entered the race in May.

Meanwhile on the Democratic side, current Gov. Tony Evers (D), who supports
legalizing cannabis, has yet to announce whether he’ll seek re-election.

During a speech at the Democratic Party of Wisconsin’s 2025 convention last
month, Evers said that if his party can take control of the legislature,
the state can “finally” legalize marijuana so that residents don’t have to
go to neighboring Illinois to visit its adult-use market.

Speaking at the Democratic Party of Wisconsin’s 2025 convention Evers said
that “Republicans better start getting used to Democrats being in power in
the state,” as a 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.

Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D) also briefly touched on the
issue at party 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.

Separately last month, a new poll from Marquette Law School found that two
in three Wisconsin voters support legalizing marijuana.

The survey found that support for cannabis reform has generally increased
over time since the institution first started tracking public opinion on
legalization in 2013, with 67 percent of voters now backing the policy
change. That’s 17 percentage points higher than the 2013 results.

Democrats are the most likely to favor legalizing cannabis, at 88 percent,
followed by independents (79 percent). However, a majority of Republicans
(56 percent) said they’re still opposed to adult-use legalization.

Underscoring the importance of party control, the state’s
Republican-controlled Senate and Assembly last week rejected another
attempt to legalize marijuana, defeating amendments to budget legislation
that would have ended prohibition in the state and established new medical
and recreational cannabis programs.

Evers has routinely attempted to change that policy as part of his budget
requests—and Democratic leaders have similarly pushed for reform.

Republicans in the legislature also cut the marijuana provisions from a
state budget proposal in May, as they’ve done in past sessions.

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 Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.*

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Marijuana Legalization appeared first on Marijuana Moment.