By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
On Mother’s Day in 2014, Burlington’s Lydia Schaefer died while waiting for access to a potentially life-saving epilepsy treatment.
Almost two years later, the law that bears her name and was supposed to allow Wisconsin families access to cannabadiol – also known as CBD oil, derived from the marijuana plant – as a treatment option has yet to work for a Wisconsin family.
Assembly Bill 228 was officially kept from a vote in spite of intensive bipartisan efforts Tuesday.
State Sen. Van Wanggaard’s office confirmed the bill was referred to the senate organizing committee for a 2 p.m. meeting Thursday – a move Sen. Scott Fitzgerald said would happen Tuesday if proponents of the bill tried to pull the bill for a floor vote.
According to Sen. Bob Wirch’s office, senators tried multiple avenues to call the question and pull the bill for a vote before Fitzgerald abruptly adjourned the session.
“I am disappointed and angry,” Wanggaard said in a prepared release. “Despite opponents’ intentional misinformation and fear-mongering, CBD oil is legal and problem-free in 21 other states and should be here. They should use actual facts to explain why they are blocking the will and hope of parents statewide.
“This is why people hate politics and why politicians have a bad name. It is, literally, tragic.”
Wirch added later Tuesday night that he and Wanggaard had the votes to support voting for the bill.
“There’s no question the votes were there,” Wirch said.
Myranda Tanck of Fitzgerald’s office said the state Republican caucus had “concerns” about the bill. However, according to Wanggaard, he had support from 29 of 33 senators to vote for the bill.
However, one of them was not Sen. Leah Vukmir, who originally opposed the bill 2014. Vukmir issued a statement Tuesday saying, “Good policy is driven by facts and not emotion. We don’t have the facts yet. It’s unfortunate that some legislators are selling this bill as a solution. It’s not. Regardless of what we do in Wisconsin, it remains illegal at the federal level.”
Wanggaard responded to the statement – issued before the item was scheduled for the Thursday meeting – by saying Vukmir was misinformed and that 21 different states had legalized CBD oil.
After the final action was taken by Fitzgerald Tuesday night, Wanggard staff member Scott Kelly said, on the record, that the meeting scheduled would never take place.
“It is a procedural move to prevent the bill from being pulled to the floor for a vote,” he said.
Assembly Bill 228 would have amended Lydia’s Law – which declared in 2014 that CBD oil did not qualify as marijuana due to it not having a psychoactive effect due to a low THC count, and therefore could be used.
Red tape in the 2014 version, however, insisted on acquiring a federal investigational drug permit to get the oil through a physician – a cost that no one in the state has stepped up to fund.
Lydia’s mother, Sally Schaeffer, who has fought both on a state and national level for the past two-plus years to legalize the treatment, expressed dismay Monday night, as well as anger.
“I’m not sure the public is aware that five people in state leadership can make or break a bill, even if it is in full support of the House and Senate,” Sally said. “In this case, we had a select few who didn’t listen to what the state of Wisconsin wanted, didn’t listen to what their own party wanted but they did what was in the best interest of their own political agenda.
“I’m guessing they are OK with the fact my daughter Lydia died and more could follow,” she added.
She wasn’t the only one.
“This is stupid,” Wanggaard said Monday. “This isn’t anything that is going to negatively affect anybody.”
After the amendment passed through the Assembly in mid-February, the bill that would have eliminated the red tape was sent to the State Senate for scheduling Feb. 17.
However, late last week, proponents of AB 228 found out the bill looked like it would not get onto the schedule due to opposition by a handful of Republican state senators, including Fitzgerald, Vukmir and Mary Lazich.
Wanggaard and Sen. Bob Wirch, in a bipartisan letter sent March 10, urged those three, along with the other members of the Senate Organization Committee, to put the bill on Tuesday’s vote agenda.
In the letter, the two said Assembly Bill 228 had been narrowly worded to simply “tell parents that if you have CBD Oil to treat a seizure disorder, and a Wisconsin-licensed doctor signed off on it, Wisconsin will not charge you with a crime.”
The CBD oil treatment is not a cure-all. As Wanggaard explained Monday, only about 36 percent of those on the drug – available in Colorado – have seen success.
“But it’s hope,” said Wanggaard, who added that many seizure medications are so radically altering the lives of those with epilepsy that the CBD oil offers a less life-affecting option.
Speaker of the Assembly Robin Vos also expressed frustration Monday.
“We got it through the Assembly,” Vos said, adding that the bill had “broad bi-partisan support.
Shilling said late Tuesday via Twitter, “I’m very disappointed that there wasn’t a single Republican willing to stand up and speak in favor of AB 228.”
Mark Grapentine, a member of the Wisconsin Medical Society, then pointed out that no medical or law enforcement agencies registered in support of the bill. The medical society and three other law enforcement groups did register against it online at lobbying.wi.gov.
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