Top Wisconsin GOP Lawmaker Says State Isn’t Ready To Legalize Medical Marijuana, Criticizing Trump’s Rescheduling Move

A top Republican Wisconsin lawmaker says President Donald Trump made the
“wrong” choice to order the rescheduling of marijuana—which he called a
“dangerous drug”—but he says the upside is that research barriers may be
lifted in a way that demonstrates medical cannabis can be effectively used
in a limited way as an alternative to prescription medications.

As advocates hold out hope for some form of legalization in the state,
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R) said he thinks “we are not there” in terms
of having enough votes to advance even a medical cannabis bill through his
chamber at this point, despite characterizing himself as a supporter of
patients’ access to marijuana “for almost a decade now.”

At the federal level, however, Vos told CBS 58 that “I think what President
Trump did by declassifying—or, you know, reducing the classification of
marijuana—was wrong.”

“I think marijuana is still a dangerous drug that should never be legalized
in Wisconsin. All the data that’s coming out from states who’ve used
it—it’s bad for kids, it’s bad for adults, it has long-term consequences
that are all negative,” he said. “But the only positive that is going to
come out of that is perhaps we will now be able to do some medical research
on medicinal cannabis to say, is it something where we now have studies
that can show it’s a better alternative than some kind of a narcotic?”

Speaker Vos, on medical marijuana, says Assembly Republicans "are not
there."

Vos goes on to say President Trump reclassifying marijuana "was wrong."

"The only positive that is gonna come out of it is, perhaps, we will now be
able to do some medical research." pic.twitter.com/uQVdPVbkGr

— A.J. Bayatpour (@AJBayatpour) December 31, 2025

Marijuana hasn’t been formally rescheduled yet, as the executive order
Trump signed last month simply directed the attorney general to complete
the process of moving cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the
Controlled Substances Act (CSA).

Such a reform would let marijuana businesses take federal tax deductions,
while freeing up certain research restrictions that apply to Schedule I
drugs. But it wouldn’t sanction the possession, cultivation or distribution
of marijuana products without Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval.

In Wisconsin, meanwhile, with just under a year before voters elect their
next governor, the majority of the current candidates have made clear that they
will support efforts to legalize marijuana—in part to fund public programs
such as increased access to broadband.

And while there’s been splintering on the issue between the two chambers of
the legislature, a Senate panel recently took up a Republican-led bill that
would legalize medical marijuana in the state.

Senate President Mary Felzkowski (R) and Sen. Patrick Testin (R) filed the
legislation, and the Senate Health Committee debated the proposal at a
hearing in October, taking testimony from patients and other advocates.
Members didn’t vote on the bill, but the chair said the panel would be
advancing it “fairly quickly.”

Vos, for his part, said that month that he hopes lawmakers in the state can
“find a consensus” on legislation to legalize medical marijuana. But he
added that the cannabis bill filed by his Republican leadership counterpart
in the Senate is “unlikely” to pass his chamber because it is “way too
broad and way too wide-ranging.”

As the 2025 session was set to get underway, Felzkowski said she was “hoping
to have a conversation” in the legislature about legalizing medical
marijuana—though the Republican Assembly speaker still represented “an
obstacle,” she added.

The Senate leader has previously sponsored medical cannabis legislation in
past sessions, formally introduced the new legislation.

Meanwhile, a Republican candidate for governor of Wisconsin who has since
left the race said in July that he was “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.

Current Gov. Tony Evers (D), who supports legalizing cannabis, isn’t
seeking re-election—but he said in June 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.

Separately in June, a 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 this summer 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.


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“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 the Assembly speaker that called for a limited program facilitated
through state-run dispensaries. That proved controversial among his
Republican colleagues, however, and it ultimately stalled out.

Evers previewed his plan to include marijuana legalization in his budget
last 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 late 2024 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 in 2024, 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 2024 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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Medical Marijuana, Criticizing Trump’s Rescheduling Move appeared first on Marijuana
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