Medical use of marijuana, the regulation of marijuana distribution entities, requiring the exercise of rule-making authority, making appropriations, and providing a penalty. (FE)

The bill requires DHS to establish a registry for persons who use marijuana for medical use. Under the bill, a person may apply for a registry identification card by submitting to DHS a signed application, a written certification, and a registration fee of not more than $150. DHS must verify the information and, unless in the previous ten years the person was serving a sentence or on probation for certain felony convictions, issue the person a registry identification card. A registry identification card is generally valid for two years and may be renewed. DHS may not disclose that it has issued to a person a registry identification card, or information from an application for one, except to the Department of Justice to determine if the applicant's criminal history makes him or her ineligible for a card or to a law enforcement agency for the purpose of verifying that a person possesses a valid registry identification card. This bill also requires DHS to promulgate a rule ensuring that certain out-of-state registry identification cards are valid in Wisconsin.

The bill requires DHS to license and regulate dispensaries to distribute or deliver marijuana or drug paraphernalia or to possess or manufacture marijuana or drug paraphernalia with the intent to deliver or distribute to facilitate the medical use of marijuana. This bill prohibits dispensaries from being located within 500 feet of a school, prohibits a dispensary from distributing to a person more than a maximum authorized amount of marijuana, and prohibits a dispensary from possessing a quantity that exceeds, by an amount determined by DHS, the total maximum authorized amount of marijuana of all of the persons it serves. An applicant for a license must pay an initial application fee of $250, and a dispensary must pay an annual fee of $5,000.

This bill requires DHS to promulgate rules to allow entities to grow marijuana and distribute marijuana to dispensaries. This bill also requires DHS to register entities as tetrahydrocannabinols-testing laboratories. The laboratories must test marijuana for contaminants; research findings on the use of medical marijuana; and provide training on safe and efficient cultivation, harvesting, packaging, labeling, and distribution of marijuana, security and inventory accountability, and recent research on medical marijuana.

This bill also prohibits a village, town, city, or county from prohibiting a person who is allowed to cultivate marijuana under this bill from cultivating the marijuana outdoors.

This bill changes state law regarding marijuana. It does not affect federal law, which generally prohibits persons from manufacturing, delivering, or possessing marijuana and applies to both intrastate and interstate violations.

Because this bill creates a new crime or revises a penalty for an existing crime, the Joint Review Committee on Criminal Penalties may be requested to prepare a report concerning the proposed penalty and the costs or savings that are likely to result if the bill is enacted.