Wisconsin’s 1982 medical marijuana law – Therapeutic Cannabis Research Act
MADISON: In the late 1970′s, Wisconsin and numerous other states took up the issue of medicinal cannabis. In 1979, two bills were introduced, AB 107 and AB 279. Both bills authorized the establishment of therapeutic research programs to provide cannabis to patients. Both bills had hearings and made it to committee.
On July 31, 1979, a hearing was held on AB 279 at the State Capitol, and the late Robert Randall, a fellow glaucoma patient and the first legal federal medical cannabis patient testified in support of the bill. I was in attendance that day but did not testify. My then-State Assembly Representative Steve Leopold, testified on my behalf. The bills did not pass that session, but the Legislature took it up again the next session.
Wisconsin then passed a bipartisan medicinal cannabis law in 1981, L.B. 697. LB 697 cleared the State Assembly on Feb. 23, 1982 by a 77-19 margin. On March 23, 1982 it passed the State Senate by a nearly unanimous 32-1 vote.
