County Board Postpones Marijuana Referendum

The Fond du Lac County Board will not be placing a marijuana referendum on the November ballot. A decision to add the advisory referendum was sent back to the Health and Public Services committees. 

County Supervisor Martin Farrell says the decision was based on a lack of information prior to the vote. He tells us “a majority of the board felt that they did not want to endorse a resolution that hadn’t been approved by the committees. It was brought by just two individual supervisors. And there was a lot of people there, we allowed public comment for well over half an hour.”

Farrell adds that “some of the supervisors did state that they did not feel it was
justified to spend $7,500 of taxpayer money to have a second page on the ballot
with these questions. Some did not think that was worth it when it really might
not be taken seriously by the state legislature.”

So before putting down the money for a referendum they weren’t completely comfortable with, Farrell says several supervisors “wanted the committees and the county board staff, our county nurse, our
sheriff’s department to weigh in on what they think about the issue of a
referendum and have a more informed decision made at a later date.”

Nine other counties are asking voters for their opinions on legalizing marijuana, including three questions – with options supporting the legalization, allowance of medical use, or neither. The earliest Fond du Lac County voters could see this advisory referendum on the ballot is in April.