News of the Day February 4, 2026
Wisconsin Democrats Announce Marijuana Legalization Bill

Wisconsin Democrats have introduced a bill to fully legalize marijuana.

But the effort to create legal recreational and medical programs is all but sure to fail. Republicans, who control both chambers of the Legislature, have not taken up previous Democratic attempts at legalization and have nixed repeated attempts by Governor Tony Evers to include legalization in his state budgets. GOP leadership has said it will only consider limited medical programs.

The proposal would create a licensing system for growers, processors and retailers, and regulate the testing and distribution of marijuana products.

And it would create a process for reviewing the sentences of people locked up on drug charges, with a path to vacating current convictions, or expunging a person’s record of past convictions.

But Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, has said he won’t back recreational marijuana, and GOP leaders across the Assembly and Senate have struggled to create a unified plan for establishing a medical program.

Bipartisan bills have since been introduced to adapt Wisconsin’s legal hemp framework. One would introduce a three-tier regulatory system similar to how alcohol is regulated. Another would essentially add guardrails to the status quo, adding safety standards to the existing market of vapes, gummies, edibles and beverages that have proliferated across Wisconsin.