Agard to Testify Against Medical Marijuana Bill at Public Hearing Print
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Written by Melissa Agard Press   
Wednesday, 20 April 2022 08:54

medical-marijuanaMadison, WI – Today, the Senate Committee on Insurance, Licensing and Forestry will hold a public hearing on Senate Bill 1034 relating to medical marijuana. State Senator Melissa Agard (D-Madison) will testify against the bill and released the following statement:

“The most dangerous thing about cannabis in Wisconsin is that it is illegal. Senate Bill 1034 falls drastically short of the cannabis reform our state desperately needs and what the majority of Wisconsinites support: full cannabis legalization.

melissa-sargent“Cannabis legalization is an issue I have been passionate about and continued working on for over nine years, since my first term in the Wisconsin State Legislature. Over the years, both in the building and across the state of Wisconsin, I have witnessed cannabis legalization become an increasingly popular issue.

“While I am encouraged that Senate Bill 1034 received a public hearing, we as legislators had 15 months of this session in which we could have worked on cannabis legalization in a bipartisan manner. Instead, this bill does not do nearly far enough for cannabis reform or adequately address the harms of cannabis prohibition in Wisconsin.

“Wisconsinites are ready for cannabis reform. As the latest Marquette Law School poll demonstrates, 61% of Wisconsin residents support cannabis legalization—yet Wisconsin is extremely far behind and increasingly becoming an island of prohibition as our neighbors in Michigan and Illinois have fully legalized, and Minnesota has legalized medicinal use.

“We cannot settle for half-baked, insufficient legislation that is nothing more than a political ploy to give folks false hope on the prospects of cannabis legalization here in Wisconsin. We must put our efforts behind full cannabis legalization.”