Legalizing Pot Could Be Windfall For Wisconsin
Legalization could generate $138 million per year in tax revenue beginning in 2021.
![Marijuana plant. Photo by Jennifer Martin (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marijuana_Plant_03.JPG)
Marijuana plant. Photo by Jennifer Martin (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.
That may be low, though — the department estimates that Wisconsinites would buy just 55% of the volume purchased in Colorado.
The department estimated the impact of legalizing marijuana as proposed in a bill introduced by State Rep Melissa Sargent (D-Madison) and State Sen. LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee). The bill would legalize the sale and use of pot for recreational and medical purposes.
“Even by conservative estimates, my bill to legalize marijuana will be an economic boon for Wisconsin,” Sargent said Tuesday. “It’s not just about legalizing marijuana; it’s about legalizing opportunity. This bill will create new jobs, support local economies, and present a return on investment per dollar that’s unparalleled in other industries. The numbers support legalization and given the budget crisis we’re facing, it’s time for us to give legalizing marijuana serious consideration.”
The department assumed that Wisconsin marijuana consumption patterns would be similar to those in Colorado, where excise tax collections rose from $41.7 million in 2014 to $89 million in 2015, and $143.2 million in 2016.
Overall, though, Wisconsin pot users would buy just 55% of the amount of marijuana sold in Colorado, the department said. DOR didn’t explain its reasoning, saying only that the estimate is “based on information from the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the U.S. Census Bureau regarding marijuana usage rates and population differences.”
Wisconsin’s estimated population is actually a tad larger than Colorado’s – 5.8 million here compared to 5.5 million in Colorado, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
New legalization costs in Wisconsin would be fairly minimal in comparison to revenue, according to the estimate – a one-time expenditure of $345,980 for setting up processes and systems for the new tax, another $156,360 annually in related administrative costs, and $1.2 million for 10 new excise tax agents, a supervisor and one criminal investigator.
Gretchen Schuldt writes a blog for Wisconsin Justice Initiative, whose mission is “To improve the quality of justice in Wisconsin by educating the public about legal issues and encouraging civic engagement in and debate about the judicial system and its operation.
More about the Legalizing of Marijuana
- Data Wonk: Will State Move to Legalize Marijuana? - Bruce Thompson - Sep 25th, 2024
- Data Wonk: Should Wisconsin Legalize Marijuana? - Bruce Thompson - Sep 18th, 2024
- Indigenous-Led Campaign Launches to Support Medical Marijuana - Isiah Holmes - Sep 4th, 2024
- How Delta-8 Impacts Marijuana Debate in Wisconsin - Richelle Wilson - Jun 18th, 2024
- Milwaukee Officials Praise Rescheduling of Cannabis by Biden - Isiah Holmes - May 20th, 2024
- What Will Wisconsin Do Now That Feds Are Moving to Ease Marijuana Restrictions? - Rich Kremer - May 2nd, 2024
- A Better Wisconsin Together Renews Call for Cannabis Legalization - A Better Wisconsin Together - Apr 20th, 2024
- Republicans’ Medical Marijuana Bill Is Likely Dead - Baylor Spears - Feb 18th, 2024
- The State of Politics: Why GOP Divided on Medical Marijuana - Steven Walters - Jan 15th, 2024
- Bill Decriminalizes Marijuana Possession Under 14 Grams - Rich Kremer - Jan 15th, 2024
Read more about Legalizing of Marijuana here
If this happens before it does in Illinois, Minnesota and Michigan, the windfall would be enormous. Not going to happen, though. Too bad.
Oxycodone is the drug of choice in Wisconsin. It will be hard to switch the white junkies to a less addicting substitute.
Great just what we need more dopers and low lifes walking around. Next liberal agenda item…legalize prostitution.
Ron Mexico: Worked with a woman whose kids went to HS with somebody’s high ranking government’s kids. I ran into them all the time while walking my dog out at the County Grounds. They always stunk of weed and Clarke’s MCSO gave them a pass.
Just legalize the stuff. Regulate and tax it.
Dopers? Are you Jeff Sessions? Right now you’re probably screaming at kids to get off your lawn while a six-pack sits on your porch.
It will be windfall as it is in Colorado: DUI’s way up, overdoses way up, crime away up, vagrants, bums way up.
We have over 65, 000 of our kids in the morgues, which are overflowing cause of our tolerance of the use of recreational drugs. This must not go on and Pot feeds it, DUMMIES
WCD, wrong as usual. https://coloradopolitics.com/despite-claims-data-show-legalized-marijuana-not-increased-crime-rates/
Colorado did see a big increase in car thefts, which has nothing whatsoever to do with the legalization of marijuana.
Additional state revenue of $138 million vs. moralistic arguments? For my part, I will say “say no to dope.” Don’t legalize it! I visualize people with no money wanting it and stealing or panhandling in order to buy it. How is this fixing the problem of drug abuse by legalizing it?
“How is this fixing the problem of drug abuse by legalizing it?”
Great point Lee because criminalizing it has been so incredibly successful!!
WCD, please enlighten us with a source for your claims. How many drug deaths are caused by pot? FYI, the gateway drug argument is bogus, the medicine cabinet in your house is what is getting kids hooked on highly addictive and deadly drugs.
Lee, how do you think people with no money get drugs and alcohol now?
I have always said, I don’t see people homeless on the streets because of weed. I do see that a lot from alcohol. Lets legalize the less devastating choice.
I would encourage anyone to visit Denver. You will likely not even notice the fact it is legalized, other than some inauspicious storefronts of which there are not too many. 5x as many coffee shops. You will notice however the vibrant economy and read plenty of articles about the drop in crime rates, drop in opioid overdoses, and the flush coffers for the public school system.
Baloney I have al kinds of reports from people that were in service in Springs plus the numbers cannot be denied. 65,000 overdose deaths in this country this year, up from 12,000, 15 years ago.. Deaths up in Colorado in all areas. DUIs way up, crime way up.
Never believe Potheads, addicts, alcoholics, all they do is lie.
Only the Potheads believe that Pot is not Gateway drug.
Rx drugs account fro about 30% of opioid deaths, as gateway. the rest are pot and other drugs from street. Anyone that denies that Pot is Gateway drug is completely idiot. Visit the Rehab and the thousands of charts I Looked at the last 50 years. Pot/Heroin/opioids mean the morgue for huge numbers of our youth, women are the worst hit.
Women are smaller and tolerate drugs the least.
Bob Dohnal, RPh
50 Years Clinical Pharmacist in Rehab/Nursing homes
Overdose from marijuana? How many? That would be ZERO. DUI is an entirely separate issue. And you share not a single source. As per usual. All WCD does is lie. Same shit, different day.
All the figures are available from the FBI. Price/Trump declared national Emergency, but for 3 wars and 3 hurricanes we would be spending more time on this.
How long will this country tolerate seeing their kids piled up in morgues, so high they have to rent trucks in some cities. Wisconsin will have 500 or so this year. Ask the police/fire how many in Milwaukee country. Almost all started on pot. Some overdoses on Opioids right off the bat but not many.
People on this site have no expertise in anything, just lots of opinions, but do not believe me, start the research your self and read the articles in all the newspapers, Journal, WSJ, all media about the deaths. All numbers are easily available. Potheads on this site and others will tell people that booze is worse. We have not piled up that many bodies from booze, plus the fact that we do not need two things piling up kids bodies unless you are completely idiots and Potheads.
National emergency is not for marijuana WCD.
You are wrong. Totally and completely wrong. Prescription drugs are the gateway, not marijuana. “Yet when it comes to recreational marijuana and opioid addiction, many experts say there’s no definitive evidence to support an exclusive connection between them. Factors fueling the opioid crisis have been identified — and none is related to marijuana use.”
http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/24/health/sean-spicer-opioids-marijuana-bn/index.html
Of course alcohol is worse than marijuana. That isn’t even really a debate anymore. “Recreational pot — legalized in Washington, D.C. on Thursday and decriminalized Tuesday in Alaska — is less dangerous than both alcohol and tobacco, scientists assert.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/legal-pot/marijuana-safer-alcohol-tobacco-study-shows-n312876
I would love to see your facts WCD. I know it must irk you to have been unknowingly complicit in the rise of heroine abuse. It’s ok, you didn’t know any better and neither did thousands of other professionals.
Interesting statistics in our State report.
https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/publications/p4/p45718-16.pdf
https://www.drugabuse.gov/about-nida/legislative-activities/testimony-to-congress/2016/americas-addiction-to-opioids-heroin-prescription-drug-abuse
Conservative Digest is a liar, plain and simple. The failed prohibition of cannabis is over, nobody but the old, addle minded, ignorant or drunk want it around anymore. Go to Seattle, Portland, Denver, Boston, Anchorage, etc..all are great, thriving cosmopolitan places with great business environments, all have HALF the violent crime or less than Swillwaukee! The drunk pill popping hypocrites war on reefer is OVER! Thank God! Perhaps they should spend their energy waging a war on the truly deleterious drugs in our society, alcohol and opioids. Just think, if we brought back alcohol prohibition how safe and healthy our society would be, right? Except the bootleggers and gangsters would run the industry again, people would go blind from illegal moonshine, millions would be wasted on a failed unwinnable unwanted war, sound familiar? It’s exactly like cannabis prohibition. This is a basic civil rights issue. Write or call your representatives in Wisconsin and tell them to end the farcical charade of cannabis Prohibition in the state immediately. Over 60% of Wisconsinites believe cannabis should be re-legalized in Wisconsin. It’s time to demand our elected public servants do their jobs!
“We have not piled up that many bodies from booze” well actually, yes. Est. 88,000 yearly. Oh, look! A source! https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohol-health/overview-alcohol-consumption/alcohol-facts-and-statistics
Most kids now a days START with pills. Do you know what is cheaper than the pills they get addicted to? Heroin.
We were in the nursing homes/Rehab that watched this stuff closely. Figures? are you too dumb or too lazy to check FBI figures?
Another fact is that the Opioid increases started in the 1980’s and the increase in morgue deaths started in 2004 or so. That increase is tied directly to the huge increases in Pot use.
Check it out unless you people here are so dumb you have to be spoon fed all the figure availble, tons of them from FBI and state/national health organizations; NIH, CDC etc.
Hanna and others just have opinions which are worthless when kids are dying.
People should not believe me or the Potheads, but do your own research, that I have done the past 50 years. Never believe Pothead that defend Pot, addicts, alcoholics cause all they do is lie.
So Old Man you wish to pile up another100,000 bodies in the next year from Pot/Opioids? Think that a good idea to kill all those young girls/kids. Heartless bastards aren’t you all, just along as you get your Pot/Booze.
Pot/Opiods hits the young kids down into grad school, NOW The next step drugs/Heroin then next step Morgue. Brilliant ideas. this country will not tolerated the young kids in the morgue. read the horrible stories of the parents losing their kids..
We have done our own research and it has proven to us that cannabis Prohibition is far more deleterious to the individual and society than cannabis itself ever has been or ever will be. The majority of Americans agree. All the drunkards and pill poppers need to pour that rot gut liquor out and lose the poison opioids once and for all. Free up the herb Wisconsin!
Ron Mexico: Actually the Grand Poobah’s of libertarianism Charles and David Koch and their ilk have been arguing for years that drugs and prostitution laws should be eliminated. They are hardly dopers and low lifers. Look up the platform of the Libertarian Party that David Koch ran on as a VP candidate.
Tell that to the Coroners, the parents of the kids piled up in morgues. Those are real bodies. While, compared to the Potheads/libertarians arguments are meaningless.
Never believe all the potheads on this site.
Peter, the booze we agree. The percent of drunks to all social drinkers is far worse with Pot, than with booze, but that is not excuse.
WE just do not nee more kids in our morgues from the tolerance and the encouragement of the use of recreational drugs on this page.
Generic Vicodin hit the market in 1983, at about the same time doctors were expanding what they would prescribe opioids for. I think that is a good place to look for the genesis of the opioid epidemic as we see it today. Heroin use has risen sharply the last 15 years, following roughly the same rise in opioid painkiller addiction and miss-use.
WCD, to say that I want to see more people get addicted and overdose on opioids is ludicrous on your part. Pot did not cause the opioid epidemic. Heroin use was way down before big pharma and the healthcare system were able to flood the country with highly addictive LEGAL drugs while laughing to the bank.
So WCD, as a Prohibitionist are you in favor of bringing back alcohol Prohibition? Please, do tell! Your reasoning in incorrect. Just because something is legal does not mean you have to do it. Alcohol is legal, I don’t drink. Opioids are legal yet I don’t use them. Cigarettes are legal, I don’t smoke. Abortion is legal but my wife had her baby anyways. You see? This is about giving the People the freedom to decide what is best for them, not the government. It’s civil rights 101, time to educate yourself.
Furthermore, the issue is akin to sex education. I don’t think kids should be having sex but it doesn’t really matter what I think or you think, the reality is, kids are having sex, so we as a society have decided it is best to educate them and provide condoms in a safe regulated manner to avoid the profound life long problems that were arising from STDs and unwanted pregnancies and you know what, STD rates and unwanted pregnancies (and thus abortions) are at 40 year lows! The same approach should be taken in Wisconsin for cannabis. The huge black market is thriving in Wisconsin as it has been for decades whether you or I like it, thus we should embrace reality instead of tripling down and wasting another triliion dollars and millions of lives on an utterly failed war on cannabis and provide a safe, regulated taxed system like other states have had for years (and soon Canada and many more states), so as to better keep it away from kids (unlike now in Wisconsin) remove pesticides, heavy metals, mold etc (unlike now in Wisconsin) eliminate the Jim Crow style enforcement, save millions in useless arrests and imprisonment of nonviolent people, create 18-28,000 new decent paying jobs, far more than FoxCon without having to give a foreign compant 3.5 billion dollars and let People, not the government decide what is best for themselves. Let’s embrace the free market over the black market. For in a free society we do not make laws based on the minority of people who may misuse or abuse their rights or priveledges, no, we make laws based on the vast majority of people who choose to exercise their rights and priviledges responsibly. I have lived and worked in states that have ended Prohibition. I can assure you it is far superior approach than what is happening, or I should say not happening in Wisconsin. That is ok. The midwest is always 10-20 years behind the times. Change will come and the sky will not fall, in fact we will create a far more free, equitable and egalitarian society in the end but not without a lot of hard work, time and energy. In closing, Free up the healing herb Wisconsin! Call or write your representatives today!
Sure Peter embrace free market , fill up the morgues with our little girls. really stupid argument. That is the question? How many dead kids will this society accept every year.??/
@WCD, enough with the histrionics and lies please. Equating ending the abject failure of Cannabis Prohibition with killing little girls is sick and disgusting on your part and you should be ashamed of yourself. Have you Prohibitionists no decency sir? Have you old timey drug war dinosaurs no moral foundation whatsoever? Will you stoop to any low to wage your failed war against your own sick and dying citizens and children? Clearly the answet is yes. Judge not, lest ye be judged WCD! It is Prohibition that ruins lives and kills, not cannabis. Alcohol, opioids, tobacco all kill, cannabis does not, yet it remains illegal in Wisconsin? In fact, as all of Canada and a majority of US States have already recognized this plant has many medicinal and therapeutic uses which have in fact, returned dignity and quality of life to millions of people for thousands of years, including veterans, little kids with epilepsy, patients with cancer, MS, etc…You should be ashamed of yourself for wanting to deprive people of the medicine they need. It is disgusting that you Prohibitionists would be so callous, ignorant and presumtuous to even try to do so. However, no amount of name calling or lying on your or any other Prohibitionists part can ever change that reality nor stop the great tide of human history which, you are on the wrong side of. Why do you hate freedom so much? Why do you big government nanny state control freaks feel you have the right to lord over othet people’s lives? You don’t. You can’t! Sorry, the people have spoken and you lose. Free up the healing herb Wisconsin! WRITE YOUR REPRESENTATIVES TODAY!
It is incredible the the Potheads on this site do not care about the 14-15 year old little girls using pot, dying on heroin, and other drugs. All they care about is their pot.
as long as they get their fix, every little girl could be piled up in morgue and they would not care. Sickening.
legalize Pot in Wis. go visit grand kids on a slab in morgue.
@WDC, spoken like a true ignorant pill popping drunkard. Go away Troll! Your ignorance is too profound to even respond to anymore. Just another sad, angry old white man blaming everybody else for his failed life.
It’s time to legalize cannabis in Wisconsin. It is an exit drug from opioids and alcohol and a lot safer and healthier than either. This Wisconsin Conservative Digest guy is a total idiot. Why does he hate sick little kids and cancer patients? What do we expect from the republicans though? Bunch of drooling half wits. LEGALIZE, TAZ AND REGULATE!
@WCD why do you hate little kids with cancer?
@WCD, just fyi idiot, pot is short for potaçion which was a brandy cannabis mash used in S America in the 1800’s. Nobody calls it that or uses that term anymore drunkard! Wow you are dumb.
Anything that keeps the Left toked up, docile and generally ineffective, I’m in favor of.
It is interesting to see the Pot heads here dismiss the 65,900 kids in the morgue this year, up from 12 ten or so years back, from over doses of Recreational drugs, most starting with Pot.
just the stupid arguments here shows you how man have already succumb to Pothead syndrome. This is mostly kids, mostly women, from 14-30 in direct comparison to alcohol who end up in the rehabs I worked in their 50s.
Watch show on HBO: Addictions and many others.
Bob Dohnal, RPh
Clinical Pharmacist 50 years in Drug/Alcohol Rehab
Those overdoses are from opioids. You were filling those prescriptions Bob Dohnal, you have blood on your hands.
Really stupid comments Tim, as we worked in Rehab where everything was closely watched with MD’s and few opioids were dispensed to people we were trying to rehab.
No the major polluter, killer of our kids is Pot, where they go from highs there to heroin and Fentanyl. About 20% or so got hooked on Rx narcotics.
I saw the charts of thousands of people destroyed by certain drugs: Heroin, oxycodone, hydrocodone, Pot, meth amphetamine, Coke.
The other comment I wanted to make is the history of marijuana. It originally became illegal to lock up minorities such as Mexicans and blacks. The other reason was that hemp is an all natural plant that does not have THC, which is the part of the plant that gets you high, it was a cheaper alternative compared to oil based products. Naturally, just like today, oil companies try to thwart any effort put forth for the world to get off of their oil addiction. Many products throughout history were made from such as sails and clothing to name a few and hemp can even be used as a source of energy to replace oil based products. Not only do hemp products last longer than a lifetime but it is all natural and doesn’t hurt the soil, it actually improves it. People want a replacement that is cheap and natural that could change the world. Problem is that it is cheap and not much money to be made compared to oil. Educate yourself and you will see the truth! Too bad there are many people that don’t educate themselves fully before making a decision about this subject. They are influenced by a government that has had a war on a drug that if compared to alcohol looks like a saint. Don’t forget capitalism plays a big role in these decisions and prisons are big business believe it or not. They are run by corporations that supply the prisons, run prisons, and lobby against diminishing the amount of prisoners filling their cells. Why in America are we considered a free country when we have more than half of the world’s prison population in the entire world here in America? Let that sink in for a little bit and when WCS wants to make another misinformed comment think about whether or not they are educated on both sides of the coin.
Hey wcd can u give me your facts and sources for the amount of deaths related to Marijuana? I see on here you make a lot of accusations and say you have expertise in this field. Last I checked there are no numbers on that. I have an open mind on the subject although you do not. These are empty claims you are making unless you can back them up. Good luck with that.
WCD, before you (again) accuse liberals of being responsible for the opioid epidemic and overdose deaths, remember this: Republicans in Congress “allied with the nation’s major drug distributors, prevailed upon the DEA and the Justice Department to agree to a more industry-friendly law, undermining efforts to stanch the flow of pain pills.” The chief advocate of the law that hobbled the DEA was Rep. Tom Marino, a Pennsylvania Republican who is now President Trump’s nominee to become the nation’s next drug czar. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/investigations/dea-drug-industry-congress/?hpid=hp_hp-banner-main_deanarrative-hed%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.29eee88a29e7
Republicans have blood on their hands WCD. Lots of it.
RX drugs are accounting for only 20-30% of the heroin epidemic. Use of Opioids for pain, started in the late 80’s way before the Heroin epidemic started.
Heroin/opioid overdose deaths, of our kids to the morgues, has gone from 12,000 about ten years ago to 65,000 this year, FBI figures.
Why has this happened the last 20 years is the giant increase of tolerance of the use of recreational drugs by the left mostly Pot.
That what is driving the deaths of our kids, mostly women from 14 to 25 or so.
while Trump has declared a National Emergency and is moving on it, the Left has made it clear that they do not care as long as they get their pot and more money for the govt.
Colorado has made that disastrous decision clear: higher overdoses, more DUI’s, more crime by the gateway to heroin criminals cause by Pot.
Dan it is really hard to commotion such stupid comments. I do not have open mind as I have spend 50 years counseling, Rehab, Nursing homes pharmacies dealing with addicts daily and the MD’s that treat them.
All the figures are available at the FBI; gone from 12,000 to 65,000 over dose deaths the past 12 years or so and the majority of them started on Pot.
There is tons info on that part.
Those that stupidly try to compare pot to alcohol, is really idiotic That is great example of the disorientation of the Pothead syndrome.
Alcohol doe into lead to heroin overdoses, Pot does. And there is the obvious fact is that we do not need another way to kill our young women, stacking them up in them morgue so high that we must rent refrigerator trucks to store them . This country is never going to stand for filling up football fields with our your dead every year. Last week headlines in Wis prove that.
We do not put users in jail ,just dealers. Future ticket users put modest sellers in jail and execution, like Viet Nam for the El Chapos types.
And who is making the fight against opioid abuse harder by siding with big pharma? The GOP. Watch 60 Minutes tonight WCD.
How does blaming Pot for the majority of overdose deaths of our young girls deaths, back your stupid ideas. everyone doi your research as the hundreds of doctors nurses professional that I have worked with the pst 50 years. HBO did a great two hour special on addictions.
Remember never believe: addicts, drunks, Potheads on anything especially those that are on this page taking really stupid positions that are killing people. Getting Tax revenue on the backs of our kids is criminal..
We do not back up anything thing drug companies did. Never liked them never had any stock int hem. The left lionizes Pot, we do not lionize any use of recreational drugs no matter where they come from.
So that’s your defense for Republicans siding with Big Pharma and making the fight against opioid abuse significantly more difficult? That is pathetic.
Unbelievable the stupid people on this site.
The discussion is whether we want to put more of our kids into the morgue by legalizing Pot and encouraging the use of Recreational drugs.
Has nothing to do with anything else.
The Potheads on this site and their apologists are quite happy with 65,000 deaths every year escalating rapidly cause of the tolerance of the sue of Pot and other recreational drugs.
Thye want Pot legalized and more money in taxes to spend on welfare and govt salaries.
Revisionist history and lies WCD. You always make the discussion about the opioid crisis. You bring it up here on a daily basis and talk about how many people are dying. And you always blame “white, racist, male liberals” for it. So now it’s revealed that your beloved party has blood on their hands and sides with Big Pharma over people’s lives. Republicans got in bed with Big Pharma and made the fight against opioid abuse much, much harder. And your response is to say “hey wait this is just about pot.” Sell your crazy somewhere else WCD. Or in the future just don’t being up the opioid crisis anymore since it’s really just about pot, as you now claim.
There have been plenty of studies done and I have done an in depth report on the subject. So for you to say that I’m stupid is way off the script. I never made personal comments towards you, I made comments on your point of view. I asked you for citations and sources for your argument and all you give me is saying that the fbi has done studies on this. The fbi are not the ones to do the investigations on this subject nor are they the ones who will be unbiased. I trust scientists and doctors to do these studies and there is a plethora of information that says otherwise to your point. I wonder if your pocket book is going to take a hit from the people that will no longer be visiting your facilities. Marijuana has been used as a medication for thousands of years before it was made illegal. It has also been proven to be useful in curing cancer and giving cancer patients pain relief, an appetite after chemo treatments, and you’re going to love this part, Tommy Ching cured his cancer solely using hemp oil!!! No chemo was included in his fight with colon cancer and no other drugs! I have known people that have saved their lives using hemp oil to cure their cancer other than Tommy Chong. I have also seen people that have died from cancer that tried to fight it with chemo. WCD can be on the side of contributing to other people’s deaths in this country due to hindering the efforts of legalizing marijuana. If you want to talk about stupid look in the mirror because the studies have shown as well as real life experiences that marijuana is not responsible for a single death. You want to read up on the history of the drug as well as the usefulness look up Jack Herer The Emperor Wears No Clothes. There are plenty of citations in there from government studies that were suppressed from the public to the endless possibilities that this one plant is able to accomplish in this world other than getting people high. I think your one sided opinion (WCD) is the product of years of political rhetoric and you have been programmed to believe that there is only one way. By the way you are locking people up for possession and not just drug dealing. Are you aware of the marijuana laws in Wisconsin which by the way are among the harshest in this country? You are just flapping your gums with blasphemous claims that have no substance. You tell the people who can benefit from this drug to suffer, starve, and die that it’s not an option because it kills people. I don’t think you could do that face to face with somebody like that unless you don’t have a conscience. Maybe you don’t. Go do some homework and come back to me with something other than I’m stupid and go check out the fbi site. Maybe go talk to some doctors and scientists on the subject rather than living in a bubble. Who knows, it might just pop! Oh no!!!
Never read so much silly crap.
I am retired for 5 years as clinical pharmacist in charge of operation for Nursing homes, Rehab, 6000 beds for decades, with my own store and other’s plus working retail at Walgreens. For 50 years have interviewed dying people in Rehab, met with nurses, doctors, Nursing homes, seen thousands of charts for those poor people who destroyed themselves with drugs and booze. Almost all of the drug deaths, not counted as overdose deaths, used pot along with Meth, amphetamines, Ritalin, Oxy, Coke, hydrocodone, morphine and all used Pot, most to start start.
That is why we have the overdose deaths not counting the millions of deaths from drugs overuse for decades.
Our kids are dying, Pot is the biggest reason, Gateway drug to those deaths.
Opioid Rxs started up in the 80’s when pain was undertreated and reached peak in early 90’s, has leveled off, but the overdosed deaths started in early this century and has escalated rapidly to 65,000 this year and will continue up with he upswing in Pot use.
This country will not tolerate losing 100,000 of our kids, mostly young ladies, yealry. Most people are ignorant of this problem.
What we have here is mostly incoherent Potheads , babbling about their weed needs. Only drug use fro anything is Marinol, worthless. No the Pot drugs are used in medical practice. lots of anecdotes, claims; meaningless!
Lots of wild claims about Pot drugs claimed to cure everything I see very day. Pot is as worthless as Laetrile’s for cancer We do not have stock in any drug company or anything even close.
FBI has all the stats on the deaths, the use, the people arrested, the ages and the problem. Drugs are accountable for the crime increases in milwaukee, as they are in Colorado. Same in chicago. In Colorado all overdose deaths, DUI’s, crime to get money for heroin/fentanyl area way up. We are killing our kids for some tax money that is eaten up in police costs, road costs, health costs. it is a deadens road paved with our kids in the morgue and the defenders of Pot are the ones that need to take responsibility,for that.
You have no points to be made other than a record on replay. I asked for actual verifiable information not an opinion. I rest my case.
-Legal marijuana is saving lives in Colorado, study finds
“Marijuana legalization in Colorado led to a “reversal” of opiate overdose deaths in that state, according to new research published in the American Journal of Public Health.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/10/16/legal-marijuana-is-saving-lives-in-colorado-study-finds/?utm_term=.36f21f81ec26
Who is credible here? The person calling everyone they disagree with a racist or the American Journal of Public Health?
liberals are such liars. Anyone can google “opiate overdoses in Colorado” and see article after article.
1.Denver Post 9/9/16: Surge in opioid abuse and deaths
2. Colorado drug overdoses up in almost every county
3. Drug overdoses soared, first nine months 2016
and on
You people must think people are stupid and do not do research.
Same with DUI’s and heroin based crime.
Hanna you must either be pothead to an apologist to be such a liar.
I have never smoked marijuana in my life. Yes I am an apologist, if you want to call it that, because alcohol and opioids are infinitely more dangerous.
Denver Post on March 7, 2017. “Overdose deaths from prescription opioids in Colorado likely dropped last year to their lowest level in six years.” http://www.denverpost.com/2017/03/07/colorado-opioid-heroin-deaths/
Yes I do think you are stupid. In fact, I know you are.
Anyone comparing alcohol to pot/heroin is nuts. Alcohol is bad but never leads to heroin. Pot does. Anyone that minimizes the deaths of the young kids when everyone except the pothead and their apologists know that Pot is the gateway drug causing this explosion of deaths. the increase in pot use is at the same time as the overdose deaths. opioid deaths follows same pattern. Increases in opioid use started in 80’s. but arguing with clowns is not my deal.
You are the clown WCD or to put it better nothing more than a troll. I asked you to provide evidence for the claims you are making and all you did was ramble on. Then you want to act like you know something then start name calling again. By my estimates from what you said you should be around 70 years of age. You speak to others like you’re still in high school. You might have been in the counseling industry but i think you’ve gotten a little too used to others having to conform to your mindset or you wouldn’t sign off on letting them get on with their lives. You make comments to say that you can’t make a connection between alcohol and marijuana and you can’t compare. Well you can compare deaths related. O marijuana and over 100000 a year due to alcohol. You must be the only one that can compare different drugs like heroin and marijuana saying that marijuana contributes to heroin addiction. You of all people should know that heroin addiction is also an inherited attribute many live with. Not just from being born addicted to it but some people are more prone to addictions than others. They’re just rigged that way. I have known many people that have gotten addicted to heroin and they all started with their opiate pills. All you are doing with your statement connecting marijuana and heroin addiction is echoing decades of a war on drugs that you will never win. People ultimately will do what they want to do. The epidemic may have started in the 80’s but it didn’t balloon out of control until the last decade. Go ahead and waste money on prosecuting people for simple possession and in some cases giving them a felony for people that have been caught more than once in Wisconsin no matter the amount. Lawyers, police, jails, and prisons need to get paid I guess. Not to mention your counseling facilities which helped produce our little bundle of joy here WCD. All you have accomplished with your perspective is ruin lives and separate families. Obviously what has been the status quo with drugs in this country hasn’t worked and it is a big business. Pills lead to heroin addiction not marijuana leading to heroin addiction. Your negligence not connecting the two assists this country in continuing down a dark and dangerous path. This just gives you a glimpse into two schools of thought and your way has already been given a try. By the way when put everybody into a group its called overgeneralization. You did this when you called everybody a pothead that doesnt agree with you. It just makes you sound ignorant to begin with and doesnt aid your cause. If you have a couple years left to mature after 70 maybe you can put the big boy pants on and have an adult conversation about the subject.Go get a life brother and go troll somewhere else!
Regardless though it must chap your a*s to know that 6 out of ten people in Wisconsin are for legalizing marijuana. So I appreciate your opinion, but that’s as far as that goes WCD.
Folks, the question here is simple???
Do we want to raise money on the bodies of our kids, mostly young women/
On one hand you have a bunch of potheads, their apologists, lefties that want more money for the govt and professionals, FBI, that can detail the problem. FBI has tons of stats. Those so us that have studied this withMD’s, nurses, therapists, psychiatrists for 50 years. written hundreds of articles, read thousands. That can quote all the problems caused by the problem of Opioid Rx’s, Recreational drugs, mostly Pot leading to the use of Heroin/Fentanyl and other recreational drugs.
I have watched people die daily that destroyed themselves with drugs. These are not coined in the body count of overdoses, it is larger.
Now we have seen an explosion of heroin overdose, the last 15 years, that correlates with the explosion of Pot use.
All the patients we had in rehab all used Pot on their way to destroying themselves. Not all overdose do that cause some are first time shots.
Quality in heroin/fentanyl is nonexistent, young girls do not tolerate these drugs very well, weight is another factor, so we pile them up in morgues.
Take the words of the Potheads/apologists or do your own research.
We can guarantee you that this is going to get really big very quickly and you can then make up your minds. Keep your kids clean or bury them.
Wisconsin will not legalize pot in fact it is very likely that he feds are going to crack down nationally sue of the kids dying of overdoses.
I highly doubt they will crack down on marijuana. Where you make the link between marijuana and heroin is where you make no sense. It’s like saying because I smoke cigarettes I’m more prone to smoking marijuana. It’s an assanine statement that you have repeatedly made and it goes back to the 80’s when the government started their war on drugs. All you are doing is echoing those archaic views on the drug. Marijuana and hemp can be used for many things in many different industries. There are people that are using marijuana to get off of heroin and using it as a temporary substitute to get off of the drug you say leads to heroin use. Let’s put it this way, if we follow what you are trying to get across to people is the way that we have tried to deal with this in the past. If you look at how that has worked for almost 4 decades now this is where we are at. Do you know what the definition of insanity is? I’ll tell you, when you do the same thing over and over again hoping for a different result. Obviously that is what you are broadcasting to the public. How many times are you going to hit your head against the wall before you realize that it’s not good for your health? This is a post about marijuana legalization and you have turned it into marijuana being a gateway drug to heroin. There is no scientific evidence of this and I have asked you to provide information. You obviously don’t have any to back up your claims. You have opinions that are just that opinions. If we went to war with another country we would want to know what the FACTS are so that we can make an educated judgement of what is the best way to deal with an issue. Without facts we are just blindly entering into a situation and will most likely result in countless lost lives and will most likely result in a negative outcome. This could all be prevented with knowing the FACTS! So I am happy to say that marijuana and hemp have a long history of information that poke holes in your argument to the point that your argument looks like Swiss cheese. It’s not to save money you are wrong about that and tax dollars it’s about lives. Lives that have been taken spending time in the prison system, families that are separated due to CPS taking kids and putting them in foster homes(by the way probably screws the kids up more than if you left them with the parent that smokes weed), and people who can’t support their families because they received a felony for having marijuana(this happens more often than you think doesn’t matter the amount you got caught with). You are a relic in the way that you view this situation and close-minded. What you are proposing is insanity and will lead to the same results we have been getting the last couple decades. Mores prisons and the highest prison population in the world is the outcome you are proposing because that is where we are at currently. We need to change something we are doing because this is insanity! Maybe you are clinically insane, but don’t broadcast that same cheap to everybody in the hopes that they follow you into this bottomless pit. By the way WCD how did you like tfhe legalization of hemp in Wisconsin recently?😁 By the way you can’t get high on hemp and it’s used for industrial goods and potentially get us off another addiction that is a REAL addiction which is oil! The only difference between hemp and marijuana is that hemp is a male plant and marijuana buds are made from the female plant that doesn’t get pollenated. Just to make that clear for people that don’t know the difference. Marijuana can change the world with the benefits that they can give the world. Many people don’t know about the benefits clinically, industrial uses, and energy production. It is a plant trhat God put on this earth that many of our ancestors used througfhout the history of our planet including our founding fathers of this country. We can go back to thousands of years that this plant was used until it wasn’t economical for big oil to have this as a competitor because it was so cheap. This was the start of the end of marijuana and hemp being legal. Sails that sailors used to get to America were hemp sales and they used hemp because it is extremely durable and is resistant to tearing. Have a nice day and look forward to WCD’s rebuttal which will no doubt be an echo of the government and a repeat of everything that he has said in the past. No new info and no scientific evidence to back up claims.😉
The Potheads here, are completely oblivious to the fact that the last 12 years overdose deaths have gone from 12,000 to 71,000, latest FBIstats quote by Sessions, mostly young women, who have never used Rx drugs .
This is not counting the huge increases in DUIs, and the longterm deaths that will be increasing.
Fact is the ten years ago Rxs for opioids topped out, yet the overdose are exploding. This is because of the tolerance of pot use and the explosion of its use, and other Recreational drugs.
Watch “Born to be blue”‘, life of Chet Baker, HBO movie Addiction and many other specials, and tell me that pot is not the Gateway. Same with Ray Charles and more than half of the overdose deaths this last year.
The Potheads and their apologists care little about these kiddies dying, as long as they get their pot.
Those of you that have an OpenMind take the time to research there is tons of research. Even NY Times had major article about Pot as Gateway drug.
Wow tWisconsin Conservative Digest can only call names, make up stories about marijuana “killing people” and just lie, distort and then wgen that dails go back to calling names. Don’t waste your time on this sad old bitter troll. Instead, get busy and WRITE AND CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES DAILY and tell them to end the unwinnable war on marijuana now!! Too many lives have already been ruined, not by marijuana but by the failed prohibition of it. GET BUSY!! STOP THE LIES AND LEGALIZE!!
WRITE AND CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES TODAY AND TELL THEM TO END PROHIBITION AND RE-LEGALIZE, TAX AND REGULATE CANNABIS!!!
All the correlations WCD tries to make about marijuana “killing people” are bogus. 100% FAKE. The gateway myth has long ago been debunked, study after study after study after study has debunked it. Citing long ago debunked “facts” from the Reagan era and from career racists, homophobes and MJ haters like old timey drug war dinosaur Comrade Sessions does nothing to help your sad little war on reality WCD. Educate yourselves people. If what this assclown is saying is true then alcohol is the ultimate gateway drug because it’s at virtually every crime scene isn’t it and most opioid addicts have probably had a drink now or then haven’t they and thus alcohol is the ultimate gateway drug and it should be banned too! Next up, he’ll be advocating that women must wear dresses, gays should be returned to the closet, beer drinkers should be arrested and put in jail next to the peaceful hardworking loving caring cannabis users etc.. Sound familiar? It’s the same tactics ISIS uses!! WCD and his brand of faux conservatives are all about social control and moralizing, coming into your personal life and homes and ruling over you. They do so because they have failed so miserably at their own lives that all they can do is try to lord over everyone else and try to control their lives. They call that “freedom”. Enough with these charlatans and phonies!! LEGALIZE IT!!
@wcd Wow, I have never witnessed a troll like this before. It’s completely amazng how misinformed and uneducated this moron is. Firstly, I do not smoke or use any type of drug at all, and secondly, you cannot call me an apologist or any other type of title that has any relation to the topic at hand because I do not care what happens with a potential legalization of marijuana. What actually does get on my nerves are fake people, and this guy is as fake as they come. Way too many tell tale signs to prove it as well. He calls himself a counselor that has worked for years in rehab……lie. lemme poke the holes here, to be in any counseling position you need to have the certification or degree from college which he obviously never went to. In order to get a degree you need to pass the basic English courses and this guy’s grammar and spelling mistakes are off the chart. Another give away is the fact that he is using only one argument through this entire post, dead children. He repeatedly resorts to this and this is a very common mental disorder that happens when the mind is out of ideas, excuses, examples, facts, lies etc… The movie 12 angry men shows this off very well, the last juror kept resorting back to simple claims and accusations because he had a personal vendetta and was spewing out whatever he could to try and defend his views. Wcd is doing the same exact thing. He’s fake, a liar, and cannot provide any sound proof at all when the fact is that more people die every year from cancer, about 600,000. Oh and what is something that is used to help treat some effects of cancer? You guessed it THC otherwise known as marijuana and this comes straight from the research and testing done by the American cancer society. It’s been proven time and time again that cannabis has less harmful and lasting effects than hmmm let’s use a simple example, alcohol. There’s another example right there as well, alcohol related deaths kill way more people than any drugs out there. So the fact that this guy is talking from his rear, spewing lies, cannot find any other arguement other than little girls, cannot use proper spelling or grammar, and is just a plain uneducated idiot proves that he is nothing but a fat lazy internet troll that would never stand up to anyone outside of his computer screen. People like this make me sick and need to be removed from this world
“Only argument is thousands of dead girls”. This shows how sick this group that is defending recreational drugs.
Fact is that over half the companies now test for Pot, will not hire. Why?
Fact is that the great majority of the Medical professions oppose use of recreational drugs.
Fact is that 50 community organizations oppose the use of recreational rugs and all the peoaldple that they are killing.
DUMP WALKER 2018!
LEGALIZE CANNABIS 2018!
Fact is that WCD makes up half of his statistics.
FACTCHECK: WCD makes up all of his statistics.
Politifact: “Rated as Half-True, WCD might make up all of his numbers but there are other words in his response. He didn’t make up those other words, we found them in the dictionary.”
wcd, you obviously believe in what your saying, that thousands of “little girls” are dying from the dreaded “gateway drug” cannibus , because that is all that you keep repeating, please show some statistics, other than , the FBI reports , which naturally are biased, you claim to be a educated person, which you very well be, so educate yourself. You and your kind are on the same path as the dinosaur , soon to be extinct!.. legalize, regulate,!! the only people that are benefiting from marijuana prohibition, are the drug cartels,
Hey Wisconsin, if we get rid of Walker and all the Republicans standing in the way of legalization this November, we can finally legalize, tax and regulate marijuana. That’s right, it’s really simple. Once the Republicans are out, legal marijuana is in! Get out and VOTE!!!
Legalize it!
FBI has all the stats and get rest by googling.
We regulate right now and it does not work, so legalize and regulate? Funny!! kids use. which screws up their brains. will skyrocket.
The Pot heads on these sites prove how bad it is.
No more underground Brothels and back room Asian parlors. Legalize Prostitution 2020.
Illinois has a Marijuana legalization bill on the table, under the most conservative of projections the state would gain nearly $200 million a year in new revenue….allowing for a 50% tax cut for homeowners though out the state and pay for the expansion of Midway Airport
from: https://www.jbpritzker.com/
Illinois soon too be new governor
JB will work to legalize marijuana, reduce mass incarceration, and reinvest in Illinois communities:
A: Safely legalize and decriminalize marijuana and put in place a framework to license businesses to sell marijuana to consumers for recreational use.
B: Review and commute the sentences of people incarcerated for marijuana offenses in Illinois. It’s time to bring the era of mass incarcerations for minor drug offenses to an end.
C:Intentionally include black and brown entrepreneurs in the planning and licensing of new marijuana dispensaries. New jobs and businesses must be created in the communities that have experienced the most disinvestment under Bruce Rauner.
D: Reinvest in communities hit hardest by the war on drugs and the legacy of mass incarceration.
Dump Walker
Legalize cannabis!