Madison NORML

Last year, while Reps. Tammy Baldwin (D-Madison), Ron Kind (D-La Crosse), David Obey (D-Wausau) and Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) all voted for it, their new Democratic colleague Steve Kagen (D-Appleton) did not. Instead, Rep. Kagen followed in the footsteps of his predecessor GOP Rep. Mark Green and joined forces with Wisconsin’s Republican congressional delegation: Reps. F. James Sensenbrenner (R-Elm Grove), Tom Petri (R-Fond du Lac) and Paul Ryan (R-Janesville) to help defeat the amendment. To read my July 2007 post about it, “Steve Kagen votes to arrest medical marijuana patients: John Gard would approve” click here.

Kagen’s vote outraged Wisconsinites who support compassionate access to medical cannabis for our state’s sick, disabled and dying. For his constituents, it was as if the man Kagen narrowly beat, ex-Wisconsin Assembly Speaker John Gard, a serial blocker of state medical marijuana legislation, had cast the vote, not the alleged liberal Democrat Kagen.

Soon, we’ll see whether Congressman Kagen will once again vote to use our tax dollars, and I guess, the money we borrow from China and other countries to run our government, to arrest medical marijuana patients and providers in the 12 states where it is now legal. That number will likely become 13 when the votes are counted in Michigan this November. That also means Kagen’s very congressional district will abut portions of a state where medical marijuana will be legal. Can he retain the district by continuing to alienate medical marijuana supporters, a group that includes over 80% of state residents? If he won’t make his tent larger, he may end up having to fold it instead.