Wisconsin Lawmakers Grapple with Competing Hemp Product Bills

Wisconsin doesn't allow legal marijuana or even medical marijuana, but unregulated intoxicating hemp products are for sale on store shelves across the state. Now, lawmakers in Madison are studying competing bills on how to regulate those products—or whether to just ban them.

The legislative activity comes just weeks after Congress voted to end the so-called "hemp loophole" that allowed products with hemp-derived cannabinoids to be sold as hemp and not marijuana. Congress must move to regulate such products by next November or that ban then goes into effect.

Wisconsin lawmakers are not waiting for Congress, though. There are at least four bills dealing with hemp before the legislature right now, including a bill with bipartisan support, Senate Bill 682, cosponsored by Sen. Patrick Testin (R-Stevens Point). That bill would tighten the definition of hemp, restrict how cannabinoids can be extracted from raw hemp, and set an age limit of 21 for purchasers.

At a hearing of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Revenue last week, "clear as mud" was how Testin described the federal regulatory framework around hemp and hemp products.

"Regardless of anyone’s thoughts as it relates to cannabis and cannabinoids, it’s here," said Testin. "We just want to make sue that we have sensible regulations put in place that isn’t heavy-handed and does not put the boot of government on the backs of these very businesses that have sprung up and have thrived here in the state in the last several years."

With the state closely divided politically but with the legislature dominated by Republicans, bipartisanship is a rare commodity in Madison. But Testin's bill also has Democratic sponsors, including Sen. Mark Spreitzer (D-Beloit).

"I haven’t felt so aligned with two Republicans in a while," Spreitzer said. 

But despite collegial sentiment and support from state hemp operators, SB 682 is not moving very fast, having only had a committee hearing last week, and no vote to advance it out of committee held yet.

Another bill, Assembly Bill 306, is backed by Assembly Republicans and would create a three-tiered system for regulating hemp-derived cannabinoid products. That bill would create different licenses for producers, distributors, and wholesalers. It has already passed out of committee and awaits an Assembly floor vote.

But Sen. Testin, who plays a key role as chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, doesn't like AB 306, characterizing it as "deader than dead" and complaining that it would create an overly burdensome regulatory process and would hurt small producers because they would not be able to sell direct to the public. The Republican infighting calls into question whether any hemp bill can pass the legislature this year.

Meanwhile, there are two more bills waiting in the wings: A Republican bill that mirrors the federal ban, Assembly Bill 503, and a Democratic bill to impose age limits on intoxicating hemp products, Senate Bill 604. Neither of those bills, which were both introduced last fall, have moved so far.

The legislature has until the end of the year before the session ends, but Wisconsin hemp farmers don't have the luxury of waiting all year. Planting season is now just weeks away.

As hemp farmer and Wisconsin Hemp Farmers and Manufacturers Association representative Phillip Scott told lawmakers: "For too long, hemp farmers in Wisconsin have been forced to operate in uncertainty, never fully sure whether the crop we plant today will still be considered legal by the time we harvest it."