Wisconsin Cannabis Legalization Hopes Fade as GOP Lawmakers ‘Gut’ Governor’s Budget

Wisconsin will likely remain one of eight states without legalized medical cannabis after Republican lawmakers disemboweled more than 600 of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ budget proposals on May 8.

Among those proposals, Joint Finance Committee members stripped the governor’s plans to legalize both medical and adult-use cannabis as well as to provide for citizen-initiated ballot measures that would allow Wisconsinites to vote on binding referenda and constitutional amendments.

While Evers called attention to the cannabis cuts, he primarily blasted the committee members for rejecting his 2025-27 biennial budget proposals for middle-class tax cuts, lowering child care and medical costs, and increasing support for children, farmers and veterans. 

“Republicans talk a lot about what they’re against, but not what they’re for,” Evers said in a press release ahead of Thursday’s committee vote. “Republican lawmakers have gotten away with doing nothing for far too long. Wisconsinites are sick and tired of having a do-nothing Legislature. Republicans must get serious about getting things done.”

Wisconsin is one of eight states where one party controls the governorship and the opposite party controls the Legislature, creating friction not only in budget proposals but also in partisan legislation. Wisconsin Republicans currently control 54.5% majorities in both chambers of the state’s bicameral Legislature.

In his release, Evers said that legalizing, regulating and taxing adult-use cannabis for those 21 and older, “much like the state already does with alcohol,” would make Wisconsin more competitive with its neighbors by aligning policy with the will of the electorate.

The governor pointed to a February 2024 survey conducted by Marquette Law School pollsters, who found 63% of the state’s registered voters supported adult-use cannabis legalization and 86% supported medical cannabis legalization.

In his executive budget brief released in February 2025, Evers projected that legalizing and taxing adult-use cannabis would generate more than $58 million in state revenue in fiscal year 2026-2027 and “growing amounts” in future years.

In addition to canceling Evers’ legalization plans, committee members nixed his idea of creating a pathway for initiative and referendum processes for citizens to circulate petitions, gather signatures and place questions before voters. Wisconsin is one of 24 states without this process.

Evers, who took office in 2019, has not only clashed with state lawmakers on cannabis policy but also on other issues that could lend themselves to the initiative process, from abortion rights to background checks on firearm purchases, Medicaid expansion and redistricting.

“Republican lawmakers shouldn’t be able to ignore the will of the people and then prevent the people from having a voice when the Legislature fails to listen,” Evers said in January. “That has to change.”

RELATED: Wisconsin Governor Proposes Allowing Citizen-Initiated Ballot Measure to Legalize Cannabis

Evers’ push for establishing an initiative process came on the heels of House Republicans and Senate Republicans clashing in 2024 over the idea of state-run dispensaries in colliding medical cannabis legalization bills.

The governor said in January 2024 that, should GOP leaders overcome their differences, he’d back their more limited reform approach versus an all-in recreational program.

“I would think that getting it all done in one fell swoop would be more thoughtful as far as meeting the needs of Wisconsinites that have asked for it,” Evers said. “But if that’s what we can accomplish right now, I’ll be supportive of that.”

However, Assembly Speaker Rob Vos, R-Rochester, and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, couldn’t find middle ground and medical cannabis legalization talks died early last legislative session.  

Other legislative leaders have offered varying takes on the prospects for 2025 reform.

In December, Senate President Mary Felzkowski, R-Tomahawk, said she anticipated that Vos would remain an “obstacle” to medical cannabis reform, while Assembly Majority Leader Tyler August, R-Walworth, said in February he remained “hopeful” that lawmakers in the lower chamber could enact change.

“I don’t think anyone is naive enough to think that marijuana and THC products aren’t present in the state of Wisconsin when they are readily available over state lines, so I think we need to come to an answer on this,” August said.

Wisconsinites 21 and older can travel to border states Michigan and Illinois—and soon Minnesota—to purchase cannabis at adult-use dispensaries.

So far in 2025, Wisconsin lawmakers have yet to deliver an answer.