So far, 37 states have legalized medical marijuana and 21 states have legalized it for recreational use. Recent research from the nonpartisan Wisconsin Policy Forum found that 50% of Wisconsin residents of legal age live within a 75-minute drive of a recreational dispensary. In the meantime, Wisconsinites can take their business out of state and bring the drug home. Because marijuana remains illegal at the federal level, research restrictions on the drug prevent physicians and scientists from fully studying health risks and benefits, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. In the process of writing its budget for the next two years, Wisconsin currently has a historic, $7 billion surplus.Ĭritics worry about the health and crime risks of legalized public access to cannabis, the potential for more impaired driving and the effect on youth. Vos supports limited medical-use legalization but told WISN-TV in January his support “has nothing to do with generating taxes for the state” or “creating a new industry.” Instead, he said, “it should be all about helping people who through no fault of their own have a chronic disease that is awful to deal with.” Consensus is “not that close” on the medical-use legalization, at least in the current legislative session, said Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester. That’s a wider margin of support than Michigan voters gave the ballot initiatives that legalized medical marijuana in 2008 and recreational marijuana in 2018.īills from Democrats to legalize recreational use of the plant in Wisconsin have been ignored by the Republican-controlled legislature, and efforts by some Republicans to legalize the drug for medicinal purposes have met intraparty opposition. Over two-thirds of Wisconsinites support marijuana legalization, according to an August 2022 Marquette Law School poll. Both states are controlled partially or fully by Republicans. In Iowa, like Wisconsin, you can buy products containing CBD, an active ingredient in marijuana that does not cause a high, but cannabis remains illegal. Minnesota, which legalized medical marijuana in 2014, is prepping to legalize recreational sales later this year.Īll three states are now fully controlled by Democrats, though Michigan legalized weed through a ballot measure approved directly by voters. In a press release, Pritzker said it “translates into significant tax revenue with a portion of every dollar spent being reinvested in communities that have suffered for decades.” That’s in addition to over $146 million in local tax revenue. Pritzker boasted a record-breaking $445 million in state tax revenue from recreational cannabis sales, a 50% increase over the previous year. In July 2022, the end of Illinois’ most recent fiscal year, Gov.
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Nearly a third of Illinois’ $1.6 billion in recreational cannabis sales in 2022 were to residents of other states, according to the state’s Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. Illinois does track sales to out-of-state residents. Michigan does not track purchases by non-residents, but some border dispensaries report about half their sales are to out-of-staters, according to the Pew Charitable Trust. These distributions from Michigan’s marijuana regulation fund are up more than 40% from the prior fiscal year, when the treasury handed out about $42 million to municipalities and counties and a combined $99 million to K-12 education and transportation. The fund also gave about $70 million to both K-12 education and the Michigan Transportation Fund.
In February, the Michigan Department of Treasury announced distribution of about $60 million to municipalities and counties from recreational tax revenue collected during the Oct. That’s about a 30% increase over 2021’s tax revenue.
Michigan brought in about $325 million in tax revenue from medical and recreational sales in 2022, through a 10% excise tax and a 6% sales tax, according to the state’s Cannabis Regulatory Agency. Critics are wary of the drawbacks, but good data is lacking. Wisconsin’s neighboring states are touting the tax benefits of their legal cannabis industries, with a large share of those dollars likely brought in by Wisconsinites crossing the border to buy legally. But, as medical marijuana inches toward legalization in the state, experts say policymakers would have the benefit of hindsight from the states who went first. Meanwhile, Wisconsin sits on a near-island of cannabis prohibition, surrounded by states with legal weed. Illinois and Michigan again raked in hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue on recreational weed sales last year, and Minnesota is planning to join the party by fully legalizing the drug.
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