Here & Now

Stroebel: “Decriminalization is Legalization”

Frederica Freyberg:
Not everyone is keen on legalizing any kind of marijuana in Wisconsin. In tonight’s inside look, we turn to Republican State Senator Duey Stroebel, who opposes the Evers’ proposal. Thanks for being here.

Duey Stroebel:
Hi, Frederica.

Frederica Freyberg:
Youre opposed to legalizing or decriminalizing any form of marijuana, even CBD oil. Why this kind of stringent stance on your part?

Duey Stroebel:
Well, I mean CBD oil is law. It’s legal. I had reservations about CBD oil because, quite frankly, I think it’s the modern day snake oil. I mean if you’ve seen the recent ads that take up half a page in our newspapers or the internet or what have you, I mean it claims to be the cure for everything. And what really bothered me is I thought we were really misleading people. There were mothers that were coming in with kids with really terrible situations. I know they were looking for anything they could grasp. Anything they could get ahold of. I thought it was disingenuous that we sat there, nodded our heads, inferring that CBD oil will be the end-all for them when I knew it wouldn’t be. So that was really my big issue with CBD oil, just a disingenuousness of the whole thing with CBD oil. As far as marijuana, I just think we’ve got enough issues with substance abuse in this country right now. I just seem to think that that is just the wrong direction to go. There’s so much unknown about the use of pot and long-term effects. I mean, the more and more you read, you see about the psychosis, the violence that follows it, and Im concerned about that. It certainly is well-documented about our youth and their use of it. And before the brain is fully developed, even before 25 years old, the long-term impacts that that can have. To me, it’s scary. It just doesn’t make sense to be doing right now.

Frederica Freyberg:
On medical marijuana, a common use is for pain. Wisconsin, as you know, like other states, has this opioid abuse problem. Wouldn’t marijuana be better to treat pain than opioids?

Duey Stroebel:
Actually, the statistics show that really when you have more marijuana consumption, that you have more opioid abuse. I mean that’s really what the statistics show. When you look at the United States and you look at Canada, they’re the highest users among pot smokers in the world, but yet the opioid abuse is the worst in Canada and the United States. So that’s really not factual, that statement. The studies bear that out.

Frederica Freyberg:
As to going back — we’re kind of flipping back and forth between these things, but as to CBD oil, now the FDA has approved it for epilepsy, nausea from chemotherapy and for weight loss in AIDS. So why again your opposition if it’s got that kind of imprimatur from the FDA?

Duey Stroebel:
I don’t think there’s really been clinical studies that have confirmed those things. I think quite frankly CBD oil has no psychotropic effect. You don’t get high from it or anything like that. There’s really no downside to it. But is there really a benefit to it? And, again, that was my biggest issue with CBD oil. You know, people will be spending a lot of money on this. And has it really been proven to be effective and to work on these things? According to clinical studies that Ive read and seen, it really isn’t any type of confirmed science at all.

Frederica Freyberg:
Well, you must really not like the proposal that’s in the Evers’ plan that says that we could decriminalize kind of recreational marijuana, allowing possession of 25 grams or less. What do you think of that? Some people are talking about this as being kind of an effort to get at the black incarceration rate.

Duey Stroebel:
Yeah. Well, I don’t know really what decriminalize means. I think it means legalize. And, you know, again, is this the direction we really want to go in society? And you bring up the black incarceration rate. I’m glad you brought that up. You know, when you look at our prisons in this state, about 1.5% of the prison population is there because of drug possession. And that’s all drugs. Thats cocaine, that’s heroin, you name it. The fractions — the amount of that 1.5% of the population in our prisons that pertains to marijuana possession is much less than that. So that’s really — again, that’s really a nonstarter, to indicate that that’s going to have something to do with the incarceration rate of certain segments of our community. It just really doesn’t have anything to do with the possession of marijuana as the facts bear out.

Frederica Freyberg:
All right. We need to leave it there. Senator Stroebel, thanks very much for joining us.

Duey Stroebel:
Thanks for having me.