What voters need to know about pot referendums

The fall campaign for cannabis, aka marijuana, will soon be visible in more than a dozen Wisconsin counties as volunteers put up yard signs and knock on doors.

Here’s a voter’s guide on everything you need to know about the ballot issues:

Know your ballots

Voters in 16 counties and two cities will find marijuana use referendum questions on the Nov. 6 general election ballot.

All are advisory referendums and do not require the Legislature to take action. But responses of voters will provide marijuana legalization activists with a measure of public opinion that they will use to encourage lawmakers to relax or eliminate current prohibitions on pot.

Milwaukee, Dane, La Crosse and Rock counties are asking voters for their opinions on legalizing personal use of pot for adults 21 years and older if sales are taxed and regulated.

Ten counties and the City of Waukesha focus their ballot questions on medical use only.

Clark and Brown counties ask if medical marijuana should be regulated as a prescription drug. The other eight counties ask if voters approve of medical use of marijuana if it is recommended by a physician. Those eight are Forest, Kenosha, Langlade, Lincoln, Marathon, Marquette, Portage and Sauk.

Eau Claire and Racine counties have included multiple questions on legalizing recreational and medical uses, as well as imposing taxes.

The City of Racine added a referendum asking if marijuana use should be decriminalized.

Poll support

A recent public opinion poll indicates a majority of voters will approve marijuana uses listed on their ballots.

A Marquette University Law School Poll of Wisconsin voters in August found that 61 percent of respondents

said marijuana should be fully legalized and regulated like alcohol while 36 percent opposed legalization. Support has grown from a July 2016 poll that found 59 percent of respondents supported legalization and 39 percent were opposed.

Persuading voters

Eric Marsch, executive director of Southeastern Wisconsin NORML, a marijuana advocacy group, said local campaigns in support of wider marijuana use in the state will pick up the pace and become more visible, particularly in the Racine County backyard of state Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (RRochester) and in Waukesha County.

“We want to make sure we have the support of conservatives,” Marsch said.

The Colorado experience

Colorado was an early adopter of legalizing the medical and recreational use of marijuana.

In 2010, legislation was passed there to license medical marijuana dispensaries and making of marijuana edibles for medical purposes. By the end of 2012, there were more than 100,000 medical marijuana user cardholders and 500 licensed dispensaries, according to an October 2017 report by the multistate Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.

In November 2012, Colorado voters legalized recreational marijuana allowing individuals to possess an ounce of marijuana, the report said. The measure also permitted the licensing of marijuana retail stores and marijuana edible manufacturers. By June 2017, there were 491 retail marijuana stores in the state compared to 208 McDonald’s restaurants.

Law enforcement officials say the widespread availability had an impact on traffic safety.

“Marijuana-related traffic deaths when a driver was positive for marijuana more than doubled from 55 deaths in 2013 to 125 deaths in 2016,” the October 2017 report said.

But a study published in the American Journal of Public Health that analyzed fatal car crashes from 2009 to 2015 in Colorado and Washington found “no significant association between recreational marijuana legalization in Washington and Colorado and subsequent changes in motor vehicle crash fatality rates in the first 3 years after recreational marijuana legalization.”

Understanding medical marijuana, THC and CBD

Medical marijuana refers to the use of unprocessed marijuana plants or extracts to treat symptoms of illness or other medical conditions. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not approved the cannabis plant as medicine.

Marijuana contains a family of dozens of chemicals known as cannabinoids. This group includes the mind-altering chemical delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. Another is cannabidiol.

THC revs up the brain, causing the “high” or sense of euphoria that people feel.

The FDA has approved THC-based medications in pill form for the treatment of nausea in chemotherapy patients and to stimulate appetite in patients with extreme weight loss caused by AIDS.

Cannabidiol, or CBD, doesn’t make people high and it isn’t intoxicating. The FDA approved a CBD-based liquid medication for the treatment of two forms of severe childhood epilepsy. Wisconsin currently limits the availability of cannabidiol products to treatment of seizure disorders.

Since marijuana is still a federally controlled substance, federal law prohibits prescriptions for the plant. To get around this prohibition, states with medical marijuana programs use the terms physician recommendations or referrals.

In considering medical marijuana regulation, states must address how to regulate such recommendations as well as the dispensing of marijuana and registration of patients, according to a June 2018 report by the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Marijuana-impaired driving law

At this time, it is against the law in

Wisconsin to drive with a detectable amount of a controlled substance in the blood. Period.

This is known as a “zero-tolerance” law.

For marijuana, a federally controlled substance, prosecution requires only a detectable amount of delta-9-THC in a blood sample, even if a driver claims the marijuana use came a day or more prior to the traffic stop.

In Wisconsin, there is no required proof of impairment at the time of arrest to convict someone of driving under the influence of marijuana.

Detecting marijuana-impaired driving

THC, like alcohol, interferes with the brain’s ability to function properly, slowing reaction time and impairing coordination needed for safe driving, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

After alcohol, cannabis is the next most common drug linked to impaired driving nationally.

The Wisconsin State Patrol is participating in pilot tests of the marijuana equivalent of a hand-held analyzer for alcohol on someone’s breath, known as a breathalyzer, said David Pabst, the agency’s director of transportation safety. No such unit is available now for wide-scale use.

Nearly 3,800 law enforcement officers around the state have been trained to determine if drugs other than alcohol, including marijuana, played a role in driving violations or crashes, Pabst said. The program is known as Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement.

Another 280 officers from both urban and rural departments in Wisconsin have completed a four-week-long training course to become certified as drug recognition experts.

Marijuana-use regulation in other states

Nine states and the District of Columbia have legalized small amounts of marijuana for adult recreational use, according to a July 2018 update by the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia have decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana.

Thirty-one states and the District of Columbia allow comprehensive medical marijuana programs while Wisconsin and 14 other states allow limited use of only low-THC cannabidiol products by prescription, the NCSL report said.

Marijuana remains a Schedule 1 controlled substance under federal law, making distribution of it a federal offense. Substances in this schedule, which also includes heroin, have no currently accepted medical use in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Legislatures in several states have asked Congress to move marijuana to a different schedule of regulated substances or allow state authority for marijuana policy.