Wisconsin is moving in the right direction with legislation, but the lawmaker still anticipates a tough road for recreational pot. A top Republican lawmaker in Wisconsin indicated on Monday that cannabis legalization is likely inevitable in the Badger State. Jim Steineke, the majority leader in the GOP-controlled state assembly, said in an interview with Wisconsin Public Radio that the state could end pot prohibition “at some point.” “Recreational marijuana, I think, has a much tougher path to get through the legislature and eventually signed into law, but I do think we’re heading in that direction,” Steineke said. Steineke told Wisconsin Public Radio that he supports medical cannabis, but his fellow Republicans––who control both chambers of the Wisconsin legislature––have been less eager to embrace recreational pot than their Democratic colleagues. Steineke added that the biggest hurdle for his colleagues in crafting legislation is “trying to write language that’s tight enough to just keep it to the medicinal purposes.” While hardly an emphatic endorsement of legalization, Steineke’s comments signal slightly more openness among Republicans toward the law change. Last year, Steineke’s fellow Republican, Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMathieu dismissed the likelihood of legalization.

420 Intel – Marijuana Industry News, 03/08/2022 19:00:00

Open article: https://420intel.com/articles/2022/03/09/top-wisconsin-goper-says-state-%E2%80%98heading%E2%80%99-toward-legalization

Cannabis activists lined up Tuesday to urge Missouri lawmakers to move quickly to fully legalize marijuana and derail a competing ballot initiative backed by existing medical marijuana businesses. The Cannabis Freedom Act, sponsored by Rep. Ron Hicks, R-Defiance, combines numerous marijuana-related bills into one but at its core legalizes possession and use of the drug for individuals 21 and older. Supporters said Missouri lawmakers should blunt momentum for Legal Missouri 2022, a campaign currently collecting signatures for the Nov. 8 ballot. That plan would give current medical marijuana businesses the first shot at full recreational sales and keep in place the state’s ability to limit licenses. Hicks, during a hearing of the House Public Safety Committee, cast his bill as the last best shot for lawmakers to weigh in on the topic before voters do so through a proposed change to the state constitution. Medical marijuana was approved in 2018 when Missouri voters approved a constitutional change. “I’m sure that every single one of you sitting here has received some type of an email,” Hicks said, “or has heard from somebody in this state about the rollout of that program, whether it was dishonest or not fair to someone.”

420 Intel – Marijuana Industry News, 03/08/2022 19:00:00

Open article: https://420intel.com/articles/2022/03/09/missouri-house-takes-marijuana-legalization-push-sink-ballot-question

The “wild west” of medical cannabis might not be so wild should a group of seven Oklahoma House Republicans find a path to passing a legislative package aimed at cleaning up the state’s program. Headlined by Majority Floor Leader Jon Echols and Rep. TJ Marti, who chairs the chamber’s Alcohol, Tobacco and Controlled Substances Committee, a group of state lawmakers outlined a 12-point plan to better regulate Oklahoma’s medical cannabis industry during a press conference on March 7. The majority of that plan is directed at weeding out “bad actors” in the state, while patient safety and protecting Oklahoma farmers from liability is also at the forefront of the proposed bills, Marti said. The seven-member House working group on medical cannabis—which also includes Reps. Rusty Cornwell, Scott Fetgatter, Kevin McDugle, John Pfeiffer, and Jay Steagall—has spent months collaborating with fellow legislators, regulators, law enforcement, and industry experts to come up with the plan, Marti said. When Oklahomans passed State Question 788 via a 56.9% majority as an initiated statute on the June 2018 ballot, they voted for a legal medical cannabis “free-market program,” Echols said. “The black market is not the free market,” he said during the press conference.

Posted Melissa Schiller, Cannabis Business Times, 03/07/2022 15:18:00

Open article: http://www.cannabisbusinesstimes.com/article/oklahoma-house-unveils-plan-to-combat-illicit-cannabis

Medical marijuana legalization is being revived in the Kansas legislature, with a senator introducing a new reform bill on Monday after separate House-passed legislation stalled in the Senate earlier this year. Sen. Robert Olson (R) is sponsoring the new Medical Marijuana Regulation Act, which would provide patients diagnosed with a series of medical conditions with to access limited forms of cannabis. It’s been introduced in the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee, which the sponsor chairs. This filing comes about a year after the House approved similar legislation, only to have it quashed in committee in the Senate in January. The new measure lists more than 20 qualifying conditions, including cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, and autoimmune disorders. It would also allow legal marijuana access for patients with “any other chronic, debilitating or terminal condition that, in the professional judgment of a physician licensed in this state, would be a detriment to the patient’s mental or physical health if left untreated.” Patients would be entitled to obtain a 30-day supply of medical cannabis products at a time. For dry flower marijuana, that purchase limit would be at least three ounces.

Kyle Jaeger, Marijuana Moment, 03/08/2022 08:56:00

Open article: https://www.marijuanamoment.net/key-gop-kansas-lawmaker-files-medical-marijuana-legalization-bill-in-senate/