Chilly prospects for Wisconsin medical cannabis leave state patients in pain
MADISON: With the elections having set the state and national political landscape for the next two years and beyond, politics has gone into a temporary lull as the winners and losers prepare for the New Year. With the holidays now upon us, even the flurry of Wisconsin localities passing ordinances banning K2 or “Spice” has settled down. A statewide ban is already on the agenda for the new legislature. It is just one of a very few bills that will see much bipartisan support in the coming session in Wisconsin. Today, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration also announced plans to “temporarily control five chemicals (JWH-018, JWH-073, JWH-200, CP-47,497, and cannabicyclohexanol) used to make “fake pot” products.”
Wisconsin’s brain drain is certain to accelerate once the full effects of the coming changes at the Capitol begin to be felt. Governor-elect Walker campaigned on a platform that included killing a planned high-speed rail line in Wisconsin that would have brought close to a billion dollars in federal money to the state. Not only would this have launched new service beginning with a Milwaukee-Madison leg, it would have created new jobs and upgraded rail infrastructure used by freight trains too. Losing this project is a blow the state will likely never recover from instead of the once in a lifetime opportunity that would have made Wisconsin a leader. And although the project once had wide Republican support too, that evaporated in a wild spree of flip-flopping to support Walker’s candidacy.
Once the new legislature takes office in early January, with a 60-38-1 GOP majority in the Assembly and a 19-14 majority in the State Senate, expect a flurry of pent-up “conservative” issues to surface and quickly be passed into law including voter ID, concealed carry, cutting state employee benefits, cutting the Badger Care health care program and similar issues.
An estimated $3.3 billion budget hole will further decrease Wisconsin’s quality of life with thousands of state jobs likely being eliminated. For state workers who can hang on, furloughs will depress wages. The Walker years will not likely in many new opportunities for ordinary Wisconsinites. Killing the train killed the development and jobs that would have multiplied out of the project. For Walker, it’s an interesting way to achieve his campaign promise of creating 250,000 Wisconsin jobs.
