Madison NORML

Our state also appears headed for another dubious honor, “Compassion hole of the Midwest”. Assembly Bill 550, the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act officially dies on March 13, today, but it practically was dead on arrival, thanks to the “compassionate conservatism” of the Assembly’s Republican leadership and Rep. Leah Vukmir (R-Wauwatosa), a nurse.

Recently, Michigan’s Board of Canvassers officially certified a state medical cannabis initiative has enough valid signatures to make the ballot. Unless the state legislature passes it outright, Michigan voters will get to decide whether to legalize medical marijuana this November. And since 1996, when California voters passed Proposition 215, legalizing medical cannabis in the Golden State, a state medical cannabis initiative has never lost outside of the narrow 52-48% defeat of an initiative in South Dakota in 2006.

In Illinois, a State Senate committee held a hearing on a bill last Wednesday and passed it out of committee, and in Minnesota, supporters are redoubling efforts after last session’s bill failed due to a veto threat. The recent statement of support for medical cannabis by the nation’s second largest physicians group, the American College of Family Physicians, demonstrates that medical cannabis is now practically mainstream.

Meanwhile, Wisconsin is experiencing a brain drain as patients and their families depart for states with more compassionate laws. It’s a lot harder to pull up stakes and move somewhere like Colorado, Oregon, Nevada or California. When what would be a crime in Wisconsin is legal in Michigan, Minnesota or Illinois, it could be a different story. Senior citizens with medical need will be buying retirement cabins in the UP instead of south of the border.

So, farewell to AB 550, the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act. Thanks to such health care boosters and stalwarts of compassion as Leah Vukmir and Mike Huebsch, not to mention Jeff Fitzgerald, we hardly knew ya…Come back soon, ya hear?

As the legislative session concludes, thoughts turn to the elections this fall and the slim 3-seat margin Republicans now hold in the State Assembly. If Democrats can regain the majority for the first time in 16 years, it means that that failure to pass legislation like the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act can no longer be blamed on the GOP alone. Patients are losing hope for changes at the Capitol. Will voters wake up?