The bill also authorizes the commission to inspect, without prior notice, the
premises and records of a licensee or an applicant. The commission may also
establish rules for suspending, revoking, or refusing to issue or renew a license. The
bill authorizes the commission to promulgate any other rules necessary to

administer and implement the medical marijuana program as it relates to producers,
processors, transporters, dispensaries, and laboratories.
Medical marijuana tax
The bill imposes an excise tax on a licensed processor at the rate of 10 percent
of the sales price on each wholesale sale in this state of marijuana to a licensed
dispensary. All proceeds from the tax, and all fees and penalties collected by the
commission, are deposited into a segregated fund, identified in the bill as the medical
marijuana fund.
Criminal provisions
The bill decriminalizes the manufacture, possession, distribution, and delivery
of medical marijuana if that manufacture, possession, distribution, or delivery is
done in compliance with the medical marijuana program established by the
commission.
Under current law, with certain exceptions, it is illegal to manufacture, possess,
distribute, or deliver THC, including THC in marijuana, which is classified as a
schedule I controlled substance. The bill authorizes the possession, distribution, or
delivery of medical marijuana by a qualifying patient or his or her primary
caregivers if 1) the possession, distribution, or delivery of marijuana is done to
facilitate a qualifying patient's medical use of the marijuana in accordance with his
or her recommendation; 2) the marijuana is legally obtained from a person who is
authorized to distribute or deliver medical marijuana under the laws of this state;
3) the amount of usable marijuana does not exceed 15 grams of cannabis concentrate
per qualifying patient; and 4) the qualifying patient or primary caregiver has in his
or her immediate possession a registry identification card. The bill authorizes the
manufacture, possession, distribution, or delivery of medical marijuana by an entity
that is licensed by the commission or an employee or agent of such a licensed entity
if the manufacture, possession, distribution, or delivery is done in the usual course
of business or employment.
Under the bill, if a person manufactures, possesses, distributes, delivers, or
uses medical marijuana in a way that is not in compliance with the requirements of
the medical marijuana program, he or she can be referred by the Medical Marijuana
Regulatory Commission for criminal prosecution under the controlled substances act
or a local law that prohibits the possession, manufacture, distribution, or delivery of
marijuana.
Prescription drug monitoring program
Current law requires the Controlled Substances Board to establish a
Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) that requires pharmacies and
health care practitioners to generate records documenting the dispensing of
monitored prescription drugs. Records from the PDMP may be disclosed to persons
specified under current law or by the board by rule.
This bill also requires records to be generated for the PDMP documenting
recommendations for medical marijuana and the issuance of registry identification
cards for medical marijuana.

Fair employment law
Under the current fair employment law, an employer may not refuse to hire or
employ, bar or terminate from employment, or discriminate against any individual
in promotion or compensation or in terms, conditions, or privileges of employment
because the individual has a disability. Such discrimination against an individual
with a disability includes refusing to reasonably accommodate an employee's or
prospective employee's disability unless the employer can demonstrate that the
accommodation would pose a hardship on the employer's program, enterprise, or
business. Also under the fair employment law, an employer may not refuse to hire
or employ, bar or terminate from employment, or discriminate against any individual
in promotion or compensation or in terms, conditions, or privileges of employment
because of the individual's use or nonuse of lawful products off the employer's
premises during nonworking hours.
DWD enforces the fair employment law and may receive and investigate
complaints charging discrimination or discriminatory practices and may, if an
employer is found to have engaged in discrimination, order such action by the
respondent as will effectuate the purpose of the fair employment law, including
awarding back pay. Decisions of DWD hearing examiners made under the fair
employment law are subject to further review by the Labor and Industry Review
Commission and a court.
The bill provides that the fair employment law does not apply to any act of an
employer based on an individual's use of medical marijuana.
Unemployment insurance; worker's compensation
Currently, an individual whose work is terminated by an employer for
misconduct by the employee connected with the employee's work is ineligible to
receive unemployment insurance benefits until the individual satisfies certain
conditions. In addition, the wages paid to the individual by that employer are
excluded from the employee's base period wages for purposes of calculating the
individual's entitlement to UI benefits. “Misconduct,” for purposes of these
provisions, is defined specifically as including a violation by an employee of an
employer's reasonable written policy concerning the use of a controlled substance if
the employee 1) had knowledge of the policy; and 2) admitted to the use of a controlled
substance or refused to take a test or tested positive for the use of a controlled
substance in a test used by the employer in accordance with a testing methodology
approved by DWD.
Also under current law, an employer is not liable for temporary disability
benefits under the worker's compensation law during an employee's healing period
if the employee is suspended or terminated for misconduct as defined above.
The bill retains these provisions regarding misconduct and further provides
that such a reasonable written policy may include a drug-free workplace policy.
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.

For further information see the state and local fiscal estimate, which will be
printed as an appendix to this bill.
The people of the state of Wisconsin, represented in senate and assembly, do
enact as follows:
SB683,1 1Section 1. 15.435 (title) of the statutes is amended to read:
SB683,6,2 215.435 (title) Same; attached boards and commissions.
SB683,2 3Section 2. 15.435 (2) of the statutes is created to read:
SB683,6,74 15.435 (2) Medical marijuana regulatory commission. (a) Creation;
5membership
. No later than 30 days after the effective date of this subsection .... [LRB
6inserts date], there is created a medical marijuana regulatory commission attached
7to the department of revenue under s. 15.03, consisting of the following members:
SB683,6,88 1. One member appointed by the governor.
SB683,6,99 2. One member appointed by the senate majority leader.