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Representative Sue Wallis may pursue full marijuana legalization

Representative Sue Wallis has drafted a bill that would legalize medical marijuana in Wyoming. She’s even considering revising it to include recreational marijuana, as well. Wallis toured facilities in Colorado where recreational marijuana is packaged and labeled and says she was impressed with how smoothly everything is going. 

Wallis says legalizing marijuana for recreational use in Wyoming would mean less bureaucracy than legalizing it for medical use only.  As a Republican, that’s important to her.  “We’re considering whether it might be better to go the full legalization route,” she says, “put it under the Department of Revenue and regulate it in a very similar fashion to the way that we regulate alcohol.”  Wallis says legalizing the drug for medical use only would require the Wyoming Department of Health to develop a new regulatory system. 

The bill needs a two-thirds majority just to be introduced in the Legislature, and Wallis says that will be hard to get. But she thinks it’s worth starting the discussion anyway.

Melodie Edwards is the host and producer of WPM's award-winning podcast The Modern West. Her Ghost Town(ing) series looks at rural despair and resilience through the lens of her hometown of Walden, Colorado. She has been a radio reporter at WPM since 2013, covering topics from wildlife to Native American issues to agriculture.
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