Drug Policy Watch · State Brief 2026

Wisconsin

Snapshot (structured)

Adult-use cannabis: Illegal. No adult-use program. Repeatedly proposed by Gov. Evers and Democrats, repeatedly killed by the GOP-led Legislature.
Medical cannabis: Illegal. No operational medical program. Wisconsin is one of the very few states with neither medical nor adult-use cannabis.
Home grow: Not permitted (no legal cannabis program to grow under).
Intoxicating hemp / hemp THC: Largely unregulated and widely sold (delta-8, delta-9 at 0.3 percent, THCP, delta-10, etc.); no state age limit, potency cap, or labeling/testing mandate. Federal redefinition lands November 12, 2026.
Psychedelics: Illegal. Schedule I. No decriminalization. Active university clinical research at UW-Madison.
Broad decriminalization: No statewide decriminalization. First-offense possession is a misdemeanor; numerous cities/counties have local ordinances reducing penalties.
Harm reduction: Relatively supportive. Syringe services, naloxone distribution, and fentanyl test strips legal/available; xylazine test strips decriminalized in 2024.
Governor (party): Tony Evers (Democrat); not seeking reelection in 2026.
Legislature control: Republican in both chambers (Senate roughly 18 R / 15 D; Assembly roughly 54 R / 45 D).
Citizen ballot initiatives allowed: No statewide citizen initiative process. Only nonbinding local/county advisory referenda exist.
Enclosure pressure score: 5/5

Cannabis

Wisconsin has no legal cannabis of any kind, neither adult-use nor medical, making it one of the small number of holdout states with neither program (Cannabis Business Times; WisconsinStateCannabis.org). Because there is no legal program, home cultivation is not authorized.

Possession remains criminalized at the state level. A first offense is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $1,000 fine and up to six months in jail; a second or subsequent offense is a Class I felony carrying up to a $10,000 fine and up to three and a half years (NORML). Many local governments have moved out ahead of the state: Madison has effectively decriminalized possession of up to roughly 28 grams, and in October 2025 La Crosse County reduced its possession penalty to a $1 fine, joining a list that includes Milwaukee, Dane County, Eau Claire, Green Bay, Kenosha, and Appleton (NORML local decriminalization; NORML on La Crosse).

The legalization debate is a long-running stalemate. Public support is strong: a February 2024 Marquette Law School poll found 63 percent of registered voters backing adult-use legalization and 86 percent backing medical (Cannabis Business Times). Gov. Evers put full legalization (plus hemp-THC regulation) into his 2025-2027 executive budget, projecting more than $58 million in new annual revenue with a 15 percent wholesale and 10 percent retail excise tax (Marijuana Moment). On May 8, 2025, the GOP-controlled Joint Finance Committee stripped legalization (and Evers' proposed citizen-initiative mechanism) from the budget, repeating what the committee did in 2019, 2021, and 2023 (Marijuana Moment).

Republicans have floated their own narrow medical-only frameworks but cannot agree internally. In January 2024, Assembly Republicans unveiled a restrictive bill limiting medical cannabis to seriously ill patients dispensed only through five state-run locations; Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu called state-run dispensaries a "nonstarter," and the effort collapsed (CBS News/WCCO; PBS Wisconsin).

Key 2026 action: on February 24, 2026, Democrats introduced SB 1045, a comprehensive bill to legalize adult-use and medical cannabis, expunge or adjust past marijuana convictions, and regulate intoxicating hemp. See the Active legislation section for details. With Republicans controlling both chambers and the bill referred to a committee viewed as hostile, passage in the 2025-2026 session is highly unlikely.

Hemp

Wisconsin hosts a large, lightly regulated hemp-derived THC market. Hemp cultivation is governed by Wis. Stat. section 94.55 and 2019 Wisconsin Act 68, which aligned the state with the 2018 federal Farm Bill; DATCP transferred primary regulatory authority for hemp production to the USDA on January 1, 2022 (National Law Review; Cannabis Business Times; DATCP).

Crucially, Wisconsin imposes essentially no consumer-side guardrails on hemp-derived intoxicants. Products containing delta-8, delta-9 (up to 0.3 percent by weight), delta-10, THCP, and similar cannabinoids are sold in convenience stores, smoke shops, cannabis bars, and online with no statewide age limit, potency cap, dosage limit, labeling standard, or mandatory testing (PBS Wisconsin; Wisconsin Lawyer). This unregulated market exists precisely because the state never built a cannabis regulatory regime.

Federal exposure is significant. Federal hemp law is being redefined effective November 12, 2026: the new definition shifts to a total-THC standard (delta-9 plus THCA times 0.877), caps total THC at 0.4 milligrams per container, and excludes synthetic or chemically converted cannabinoids such as CBD-isomerized delta-8. Most commercial intoxicating-hemp SKUs would lose federal hemp status (Wisconsin Watch; The Haze Connect). Note: the exact statutory vehicle and effective-date mechanics are still being reported in the press; treat the precise figures as "as reported, pending final federal implementation."

The economic stakes in Wisconsin are large. Gov. Evers' office has said the change could affect roughly 3,500 jobs and $700 million in economic activity, with about 470 federally licensed hemp growers; industry owners warn it would "decimate" hundreds of dispensaries and shops opened since 2018 (Wisconsin Watch; Yahoo/AP coverage). Recent state action: Evers' 2025-2027 budget would have created a regulatory framework for hemp THC alongside cannabis, but the GOP committee removed it; the Democratic SB 1045 (2026) would also restrict intoxicating hemp products (defined as items with 1 to 10 mg of intoxicating cannabinoids per serving or per 12 fluid ounces) to buyers 21 and older (Marijuana Moment; Foley Hoag).

Psychedelics

Psilocybin and other psychedelics remain Schedule I controlled substances in Wisconsin; possession is criminal and there is no decriminalization or therapeutic-access framework (Grieve Law; Wisconsin Statutes 961.41(1r)). The most recent legislative effort was SB 727 in the 2023-2024 session, a proposed pilot to study psilocybin for treatment-resistant PTSD in combat veterans, which did not pass (Psychedelic Passage).

No new statewide psychedelics decriminalization or access bill has been confirmed in the 2025-2026 session as of this writing (unconfirmed whether any 2026 measure is pending; none surfaced in current reporting). Wisconsin is, however, a notable research hub: UW-Madison's Transdisciplinary Center for Research in Psychoactive Substances runs clinical trials on psilocybin and MDMA, with support from MAPS and the Usona Institute (WPR).

Broader drug policy

There is no statewide cannabis or general drug decriminalization; reform has happened only through local ordinances (see Cannabis). State expungement remains restrictive: it is generally available only for offenses committed before age 25, only for misdemeanors or first-time nonviolent felonies with a maximum sentence of six years, and the decision must be made at sentencing rather than petitioned for later (Milwaukee NNS; CCRC). Evers' 2025-2027 budget sought to loosen these rules (removing the age cap and allowing post-sentencing petitions), but those provisions did not advance (Milwaukee NNS).

Harm reduction is comparatively well supported. Syringe services operate statewide; the Department of Health Services runs naloxone distribution and mobile harm-reduction programming, and fentanyl test strips are legal and distributed at pharmacies, syringe programs, and opioid treatment programs (Wisconsin DHS opioids; NEXT Distro Wisconsin). Wisconsin decriminalized xylazine test strips in 2024 (reported as SB 875), extending the test-strip exemption beyond fentanyl (PBS Wisconsin). DHS reports show large-scale naloxone distribution (for example, more than 16,000 Narcan kits distributed in a single late-2024 quarter) funded substantially through opioid settlement dollars (Wisconsin DHS settlement summary).

Political landscape

Governor: Tony Evers (Democrat), in his final term; he announced he will not seek reelection in 2026, opening a wide race to succeed him (NBC News; WPR).

Legislature: Republicans control both chambers in the 2025-2026 session, reported at roughly 18 R / 15 D in the Senate and roughly 54 R / 45 D in the Assembly; all seats in both chambers are up in 2026 (primary Aug. 11, 2026; general Nov. 3, 2026), and Democrats see a path to flip the Senate (Ballotpedia; WPR).

Key committees: SB 1045 was referred to the Senate Committee on Licensing, Regulatory Reform, State and Federal Affairs, reported as chaired by Sen. Chris Kapenga, with members including André Jacque and Steve Nass, all viewed as opposed to legalization (committee composition as reported; verify current membership against the Legislature site) (Foley Hoag).

Named reform champions: Sens. LaTonya Johnson and Chris Larson (D), lead sponsors of SB 1045 (Marijuana Moment). On the Republican side, Sen. Mary Felzkowski is the most prominent medical-cannabis proponent, though she opposes the state-run-dispensary model (US News/AP). Former Sen. Melissa Agard (D) was the longtime lead legalization sponsor in prior sessions; she does not appear as a primary sponsor of SB 1045 (her current legislative role is unconfirmed here).

Named opponents: Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R) and former Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R) deadlocked over the 2024 medical-only bill (Vos backing state-run dispensaries, LeMahieu calling that a "nonstarter"), which stalled medical reform (CBS News/WCCO). The current Senate Majority Leader for the 2025-2026 session is unconfirmed here; verify against the Legislature site.

Ballot initiatives

Wisconsin has no statewide citizen-initiative or popular-referendum process; voters cannot put a binding measure on the ballot. The only direct-democracy expression on cannabis has been nonbinding local and county advisory referenda, which over multiple cycles have shown strong majorities favoring legalization but carry no legal force (Cannabis Business Times). Evers proposed creating a citizen-initiative mechanism in his 2025-2027 budget, but the GOP-led committee removed it (Marijuana Moment). No pending statewide cannabis ballot measure exists or can exist under current law.

Equity and expungement

Because there is no legal cannabis market, there are no operative social-equity licensing provisions in Wisconsin today. SB 1045 (2026) would, if enacted, pair legalization with expungement or adjustment of past marijuana convictions, the principal equity feature on the table (LegiScan). Outside any cannabis bill, general expungement is narrow: limited to offenses committed before age 25, restricted to misdemeanors and first-time low-level nonviolent felonies, and available only by request at sentencing rather than by later petition, which excludes most adults with older convictions (Milwaukee NNS; CCRC). Evers' budget proposals to broaden expungement did not advance. Net effect: people with prior marijuana convictions, disproportionately Black and brown Wisconsinites given enforcement patterns, largely remain excluded from relief.

Market and barriers

There is no licensed cannabis market, so there are no cannabis tax rates, license fees, caps, or licensee counts in effect. The only quantified figures are proposed or adjacent: - Proposed adult-use taxes (Evers 2025-2027 budget): 15 percent wholesale excise plus 10 percent retail excise, projected to raise more than $58 million annually (Marijuana Moment). - Hemp market scale (existing): roughly 470 federally licensed hemp growers and an estimated 3,500 jobs and $700 million in economic activity tied to the broader intoxicating-hemp sector that the November 12, 2026 federal change threatens (Wisconsin Watch). - License caps/fees/residency: none for cannabis (no program). Any such terms would be set by SB 1045 or a future enacted law; specific fee and cap figures in SB 1045 are not detailed in current reporting (unconfirmed).

Enclosure read

Wisconsin is unusual: the dominant dynamic is not a fenced legal market but a near-total prohibition coexisting with a wide-open, unregulated hemp-THC gray market. Who is fenced out: ordinary residents (no legal access, ongoing criminal exposure, narrow expungement), patients (no medical program), and people with prior convictions (largely excluded from relief). Who is positioned to consolidate: the looming November 12, 2026 federal hemp redefinition is the key enclosure vector. If it takes effect as reported, it would wipe out much of the small-shop, smoke-shop, and farmer-driven hemp-THC economy, and in a state with no legal cannabis to absorb that demand, supply could shift to illicit channels or to whatever larger, compliance-capable operators survive. Republican legislative gatekeepers (committee chairs, leadership) currently hold the fence shut against a legal, regulated market that would otherwise diffuse access.

Score justification: 5/5 (corrected July 18, 2026; an earlier version of this brief scored Wisconsin 3). Under the July 2026 re-score, a state with no legal access scores as fully enclosed. Wisconsin closes every legal door: no adult-use market, no medical program, prohibition enforced by a hostile legislature with no citizen-initiative bypass, and restrictive expungement that locks out the previously convicted. The one lane that grew in the gap, unregulated hemp THC, is scheduled to be cleared by the November 12, 2026 federal redefinition, leaving either an illicit market or a consolidated survivor field. A state where the community has no lawful way in is fully fenced, whoever holds the gate.

What to watch next

November 12, 2026: federal hemp redefinition effective date; the central deadline for Wisconsin's large intoxicating-hemp sector (figures and mechanics still being finalized; verify) (Wisconsin Watch).
SB 1045: watch for any (unlikely) committee hearing in the Senate Licensing/Regulatory Reform committee; if no action by the end of the 2025-2026 session, it dies and must be reintroduced (LegiScan).
August 11, 2026 primary and November 3, 2026 general elections: full legislative turnover and an open governor's race; a Democratic Senate flip plus a Democratic governor would materially change cannabis prospects for 2027 (WPR; NBC News).
Legislative calendar: the 2025-2026 biennial session is in its second year; floor activity typically winds down in spring of the even year, so the practical window for 2026 action is narrow. Verify the exact final floorperiods on the Legislature site.

Regulators

Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP): hemp policy and consumer-protection oversight; held primary hemp-production regulation until transferring it to USDA on Jan. 1, 2022; would house the proposed cannabis regulatory program under Evers' budget (DATCP).
USDA: primary regulator of hemp production in Wisconsin since Jan. 1, 2022 (Cannabis Business Times).
Wisconsin Department of Revenue: would administer cannabis taxes under legalization; has produced fiscal estimates of legalization bills (Marijuana Moment).
Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS): opioid response, naloxone distribution, syringe services, and harm-reduction programming (Wisconsin DHS).
Law enforcement and county courts: enforce criminal cannabis and controlled-substance statutes; local ordinances vary by jurisdiction.

Federal exposure (2026)

Wisconsin's federal exposure is lopsided: almost nothing on the cannabis-rescheduling side, and a severe, near-term hit on the hemp side.

Rescheduling and 280E. In April 2026 a DOJ/DEA order moved only FDA-approved cannabis drugs and state-licensed medical cannabis to Schedule III, ending the Section 280E tax penalty for that narrow medical category; recreational cannabis stays Schedule I, and a broader DEA hearing opened June 29, 2026 (and may slip to 2027) (Marijuana Moment Wisconsin coverage). For Wisconsin this is moot. The state has no medical and no adult-use program, so there are no state-licensed cannabis businesses to claim 280E relief and no operators to move into Schedule III. The federal medical carve-out does nothing for a prohibition state; it lowers the tax burden on licensed operators elsewhere while Wisconsin businesses, which do not exist in law, get no benefit. Schedule III also does not legalize cannabis, does not authorize interstate commerce, and does not cover state-licensed sellers, so even a future Wisconsin program would not gain federal legality from it.

The November 12, 2026 hemp cliff (critical). This is Wisconsin's single largest federal exposure. The FY2026 agriculture appropriations measure (Sec. 781, sponsor reported as Rep. Andy Harris, R-MD; treat sponsor and section as unconfirmed pending final text) narrows the federal hemp definition to a total-THC standard of roughly 0.4 milligrams of THC per container, effective November 12, 2026, which recriminalizes an estimated 90 to 95 percent of intoxicating-hemp products nationally; a proposed delay (reported as H.R.7010, unconfirmed) was not enacted, and the 2026 Farm Bill vehicle (reported as H.R.7567, unconfirmed) keeps the ban (Wisconsin Watch; The Haze Connect). Wisconsin is acutely exposed because it built a large hemp-derived THC market on the 2018 Farm Bill's 0.3 percent by-weight delta-9 standard and added essentially no state guardrails: no age limit, no potency cap, no labeling or testing mandate (see Hemp). That open market sells delta-8, delta-9, delta-10, and THCP products across convenience stores, smoke shops, and cannabis bars statewide. When the federal floor drops to about 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container, the overwhelming majority of those SKUs lose federal hemp status and become Schedule I controlled substances by default. Gov. Evers' office has estimated the change could affect roughly 3,500 jobs, about $700 million in economic activity, and around 470 federally licensed growers, and industry owners warn it would decimate hundreds of dispensaries and shops opened since 2018 (Wisconsin Watch; Yahoo/AP coverage). Because Wisconsin has no legal cannabis program to absorb that demand, there is no in-state legal off-ramp: the products do not migrate to licensed dispensaries (there are none), so demand shifts either to the illicit market or out of state. The exact statutory vehicle and figures are still being reported; treat them as pending final federal implementation.

Banking. SAFER Banking has stalled in Congress. This is not applicable to Wisconsin in any practical sense, because there is no legal cannabis market and therefore no licensed cannabis businesses being denied bank accounts or card processing. Banking reform would matter only if and when Wisconsin creates a regulated program.

Psychedelics. Psilocybin, MDMA, and ibogaine remain Schedule I federally; an April 18, 2026 executive order, Accelerating Medical Treatments for Serious Mental Illness [https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/04/accelerating-medical-treatments-for-serious-mental-illness/] plus FDA priority vouchers aim to fast-track FDA review, but no approval has issued (WPR). Wisconsin has no state decriminalization or therapeutic-access law, so any near-term access would arrive only through the federal FDA route, not state policy. UW-Madison's clinical research positions the state to participate in that federal pathway, but provides no consumer access today.

Harm reduction. Wisconsin is exposed to the SAMHSA guidance dated April 24, 2026, which bars federal funds from paying for fentanyl test strips, clean syringes, and sterile water, while continuing to support naloxone. Wisconsin's harm-reduction system leans on syringe services and fentanyl test strip distribution (see Broader drug policy), so the federal funding restriction threatens those specific services; the state has partly cushioned this by funding naloxone and programming through opioid-settlement dollars, which are not federal grant funds and so are not directly subject to the SAMHSA bar (Wisconsin DHS settlement summary). Net: naloxone supply is insulated, but federally funded syringe and test-strip programs face a squeeze.

Patient access and rights

This section covers what Wisconsin law does and does not protect for a medical cannabis patient: use inside a hospital, and the broader rights that follow a patient into work, housing, parenting, an organ transplant list, and school. It is information, not legal advice, and it reflects the law as of July 2026. Each point links to the primary statute.

Wisconsin has no comprehensive medical cannabis program. State law allows only CBD, under Wisconsin Statutes Section 961.32(2m), which lets a physician certify a patient to possess a CBD product. It is a narrow allowance, not a program, and it carries none of the protections other states provide.

Hospital access (Ryan's Law): Wisconsin has no hospital-access law. No statute requires a hospital or similar facility to let a patient use medical cannabis on site, so the decision is left to each facility's own policy. Seven states have now enacted a Ryan's Law protection (California in 2021, and Colorado, Delaware, Louisiana, Oregon, Virginia, and Washington in 2026), with Pennsylvania's bill pending; Wisconsin is not among them.

Broader protections: here the absence is the finding. A review of Wisconsin law found no statutory protection for a medical cannabis patient in any of the areas other states cover: not employment, not housing, not a custody or visitation dispute, not placement on an organ transplant list, and not school enrollment, and there is no general medical-care protection. In these situations the patient has no enforceable shield; the protection does not exist in state law today.

Out-of-state patients: Wisconsin has no medical program and does not recognize other states' medical cannabis cards.

The federal picture: the April 2026 federal move of state-licensed medical cannabis to Schedule III did not change any of this. Schedule III does not make dispensary cannabis a lawful prescription medicine, and it creates no hospital-use right and no employment, housing, custody, transplant, or school protection; only state law can create those, and Wisconsin has not.

What to watch: a medical cannabis bill, Senate Bill 534, cleared a Senate committee in early 2026 but failed to pass and is not law.

Sources: Wisconsin's CBD law, Wisconsin Statutes Section 961.32(2m).

Analysis: the enclosure read in depth

Who is fenced out in Wisconsin. Wisconsin is one of the very few states with neither a medical nor an adult-use cannabis program, so the people fenced out are nearly everyone: ordinary residents have no legal access and carry ongoing criminal exposure (first-offense possession is a misdemeanor, a second offense a Class I felony); patients have no medical program of any kind; and people with prior convictions are largely locked out of relief by an unusually narrow expungement law (offenses before age 25, misdemeanors or first-time low-level felonies only, decided at sentencing rather than by later petition). The fence is held shut politically: a Republican-controlled Legislature has stripped Gov. Evers' legalization and hemp-regulation proposals from the budget in 2019, 2021, 2023, and again on May 8, 2025, and Republicans cannot agree internally even on a narrow medical-only model. Crucially, Wisconsinites have no escape valve: the state has no statewide citizen-initiative or popular-referendum process, so voters cannot route around the Legislature the way they have in many other prohibition states. The only direct-democracy expression has been nonbinding local advisory referenda, which show majority support but carry no legal force. Evers proposed creating a citizen-initiative mechanism in his budget; the GOP committee removed that too.

State-plus-federal interaction. The defining feature of Wisconsin's enclosure picture is the collision of an unregulated state market with the federal hemp cliff. Because the Legislature refused to build a cannabis regime, demand for THC flowed into the only legal channel available, intoxicating hemp, producing a large, wide-open market with no state guardrails. The November 12, 2026 federal redefinition now lands directly on that market. In a state with a regulated cannabis program, displaced hemp demand could in principle migrate into licensed dispensaries; in Wisconsin there is no such destination. The result is a uniquely bad interaction: state inaction created the dependency, and federal action removes the supply, with no legal in-state market to catch it. The likely outcomes are a contraction of the small-shop and farmer-driven hemp economy, a shift of demand to illicit channels, and survival concentrated among whatever larger, compliance-capable operators can adapt. The federal enclosure read, which favors large incumbents and fences out small actors and hemp, maps cleanly onto Wisconsin's many small smoke shops and roughly 470 licensed growers.

What to watch. The November 12, 2026 effective date and any last-minute federal delay or implementing guidance; whether enforcement against hemp-THC retail is immediate or deferred; the August 11, 2026 primary and November 3, 2026 general election, which bring full legislative turnover and an open governor's race, where a Democratic Senate flip plus a Democratic governor would materially change cannabis and hemp-regulation prospects for 2027; and any movement on SB 1045, which would both legalize cannabis and impose guardrails on intoxicating hemp, though it is widely expected to stall in a hostile committee this session.

Absence of commons counter-moves. There are essentially no commons-protecting counter-moves available in Wisconsin under current law. There is no citizen initiative to legalize from the ground up, no home-grow allowance (no legal program to grow under), no social-equity or microbusiness licensing (no market to license), and no state hemp-regulation regime to convert today's gray-market shops into a protected, locally owned legal sector ahead of the federal cliff. The reform vehicles that exist, Evers' budget proposals and SB 1045, have been blocked or are expected to be. So as the federal hemp ban approaches, Wisconsin has no state-level structure to preserve small-operator access; the field is left to prohibition on one side and federal enclosure on the other.

Justifying the enclosure score (5/5). An earlier version of this brief held Wisconsin at the middle of the scale because the classic high-enclosure pattern, a few large license-holders capturing a legal market, is absent here; there is no licensed market to consolidate. The July 2026 re-score corrected that reading: a commons the community cannot lawfully enter is a closed commons, and closure by prohibition scores at the top of the scale just as closure by capture does. Access in Wisconsin is fenced on every axis that matters. Total prohibition closes legal access for consumers and patients, a hostile Legislature holds the fence shut with no citizen-initiative bypass, restrictive expungement locks out the previously convicted, and the November 12, 2026 federal hemp redefinition threatens to convert today's open hemp market into either an illicit market or a consolidated survivor field dominated by larger compliance-capable operators. Closed legal access, an impending federal squeeze on the one open lane, and no commons counter-moves available: that is a fully fenced state, and the score now says so.

Active legislation (2026)

Beyond the live tracker

These measures are not in the live bill list below: some are not bills (executive orders, rules, referendums, or budgets), and some are proposals or prior-session measures the live tracker does not currently carry.

2025-2027 Budget (Act, enacted) Evers' executive budget included full cannabis legalization, hemp-THC regulation, expungement reform, and a citizen-initiative mechanism (Cannabis/hemp/initiative provisions stripped by GOP-led Joint Finance Committee on May 8, 2025)

Bill	Title/Topic	Chamber	Status	Sponsor(s)
SB 1045 (2025-2026)	Legalize adult-use and medical cannabis; expunge/adjust past marijuana convictions; regulate intoxicating hemp; tax and licensing framework	Senate	Introduced Feb. 24, 2026; referred to Senate Committee on Licensing, Regulatory Reform, State and Federal Affairs; no hearing scheduled (widely expected to stall)	Sens. LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee) and Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee), with 14 of 15 Senate Democrats co-sponsoring; an Assembly companion drew 33 of 45 Assembly Democrats; no Republican co-sponsors (LegiScan; Marijuana Moment; Foley Hoag)
2025-2027 Budget (Act, enacted)	Evers' executive budget included full cannabis legalization, hemp-THC regulation, expungement reform, and a citizen-initiative mechanism	Both (Joint Finance Committee)	Cannabis/hemp/initiative provisions stripped by GOP-led Joint Finance Committee on May 8, 2025	Gov. Tony Evers (executive proposal); JFC majority removed provisions (Marijuana Moment)

An Assembly companion to SB 1045 was reported in the press but its exact bill number is unconfirmed in current reporting; treat the Assembly vehicle as "unconfirmed number, same content." This table is not exhaustive. For the full picture and the long tail of minor bills, track LegiScan Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Legislature site, and Marijuana Moment's Wisconsin coverage.

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A planning snapshot for 2026, not legal advice. Policy moves quickly; confirm any single detail against the cited sources before acting on it. Sponsor names are given where confirmable and marked unconfirmed otherwise.

About the author. Jessica Mantonya is the founder of Drug Policy Watch and Hold in Common. She also advises operators, advocates, and funders on regulatory strategy and anti-enclosure positioning. Work with her →