Will Wisconsin tourists flock to Illinois to buy pot?

Wisconsin residents soon won’t have to go far to legally consume marijuana. A store that will sell cannabis less than one mile across the Wisconsin state line into Illinois got approved last Tuesday, the Chicago Tribune reported. The company plans to begin construction soon.

The article, ‘Can Illinois draw marijuana tourists from out of state? Retailers are taking a gamble on Illinois border towns’ reports that South Beloit, Ill. approved Chicago-based Cresco Labs to open a store just off Interstate 90, less than a mile from the Wisconsin border. 

“It’s the perfect site,” South Beloit Mayor Ted Rehl told the Tribune. “Location, location, location.”

South Beloit also plans to put a 3% municipal tax — the highest allowed — on the sale of marijuana and the mayor said the city could not pass up that opportunity. 

Wisconsin Democratic legislators–and even a Republican–have versions of legislation for full legalization and another for medicinal cannabis.

State Rep. Melissa Sargent (D-Madison), is spearheading the push for full legalization in Wisconsin. An estimate tied to her 2017 bill noted that full legalization would within three years bring in $138 million annually — if Wisconsin consumers purchase about half the volume of marijuana bought in Colorado.

In his budget, Gov. Tony Evers had included legalizing medical marijuana and decriminalizing small amounts of pot. He has called these measures a top priority. “This is not just about access to health care, this is about connecting the dots between racial disparities and economic inequity,” Evers said at a news conference earlier this year.

But the effort was removed from Evers’ budget and hit a dead end due to the staunch objection of Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald. (Speaker Robin Vos has expressed a willingness to look at medicinal marijuana.) 

Meanwhile, states all around Wisconsin are moving forward. In Michigan, marijuana is already legal for medicinal use and a ballot measure in 2018 resulted in approval of full legalization, although it won’t likely be available commercially until early next year, as businesses must be licensed and approved. That timing is similar to Illinois, where full legalization takes effect Jan. 1, 2020. Minnesota has a restrictive medical marijuana program, and Democrats have made full legalization a major election issue in that state.