After four decades of using strong prescription drugs to treat Crohn’s disease, a chronic digestive disorder, Patty developed an aggressive form of skin cancer.

“It’s because my body has been suppressed for so long, it can’t fight it [cancer],” the Wisconsin resident said.

Patty, who has worked at her father’s restaurant for 27 years, now struggles to handle full-time duties.

“I’m trying to get disability, but I’ve been denied once already. I don’t plan on quitting working. I just need help. I need help because I can’t do a full-time job,” Patty said.

The Wisconsin Assembly is scheduled to give final approval to a bill designed to help the state's industrial hemp industry as the program enters its second year.

The bill up for approval Tuesday would align the state's program with new requirements under the 2018 federal farm bill, while also allowing Wisconsin to retain control.

The bipartisan measure is designed to help farmers, hemp processors, retailers and consumers as the industry in Wisconsin grows.

The bill comes as some lawmakers and Democratic Gov. Tony Evers are pushing the Legislature to legalize medical marijuana and decriminalize small amounts of pot. There is also a bill to fully legalize recreational marijuana.

Hemp licensing applications and registrations are available for the 2020 Wisconsin growing season starting Nov. 1, 2019. The deadline for current licensees to renew their registration is March 1, 2020. New licensees can apply at any time during the year. 

Wisconsin’s research pilot program requires that anyone who wants to grow or process hemp obtain a license from the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, and register their intent to grow or process in the coming season. Hemp can contain no more than 0.3 percent total THC, the psychoactive ingredient present in marijuana.

When Madison barber and business owner Brian Britt, 42, stepped up to a folding table in the entryway of the Urban League of Greater Madison, he had a single goal in his mind: Wipe from his record the decades-old criminal convictions he says are holding him back.

In 2000, at age 22, Britt was convicted of marijuana possession with intent to deliver as a repeat offense and a gun charge. He served five years in prison.

Nineteen years later, he is hoping to make those convictions less public. It is the next step in an ongoing process, he said, which includes paying back child support.

"(I'm) cleaning my background up so I can get a better life," he said, "so things don't stagnate me like they used to."

Wisconsin's agricultural hemp program is one step closer to becoming permanent.

A bill co-authored by Stevens Point Republican Patrick Testin and Milwaukee Democrat Lena Taylor that removes the pilot program distinction from hemp passed the Senate on Tuesday.

Testin says the growth of the program in its two-year test run shows the crop has the potential to be something special in the state. "In year one we had 250 growers, now we have over 1,500. It's a huge surge, there hasn't been an expansion of any hemp program like that in the entire country."

A bipartisan medical cannabis bill was introduced to the Wisconsin legislature on Sept. 20 by Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton, Rep. Chris Taylor, D-Madison and Sen. Patrick Testin, R-Stevens Point.

According to Testin, the bill would introduce a regulated process on both the patients’ end and production end. The bill requires a recommendation from the doctor as well as a registry system for said patients. On the production end, a licensing system would be put into place for growers, producers and sellers.

Efforts to legalize medical marijuana in Wisconsin have intensified with the introduction of a new bipartisan bill in the state’s legislature last week.

Republican Senator Patrick Testin and Democrats Senator Jon Erpenbach and Representative Chris Taylor brought forward the legislation, which would allow cannabis treatment for patients that register with the state. The bill is the first bipartisan push for the legalization of medical marijuana in the state in 18 years, the trio said. 

In another potentially damning news headline for the vaping industry, health officials in Wisconsin are reporting at least eight cases of “severe lung damage” possibly caused by vaping E-cigarettes.

Doctors reported their  findings to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (WisDHS) earlier in July. For the time being, the exact cause of lung trauma for the eight teens is unclear, although all of them have a history of vaping. The department explained that all eight of the teens had experienced coughing, fatigue, nausea, and chest pain. According to reports, the teens were experiencing these nasty symptoms for months but were eventually forced to seek medical assistance.

Cannabis legalization is getting a concentrated push in the state of Wisconsin, where on Thursday Rep. Melissa Sargent of Madison announced that she would propose legislation to legalize recreational marijuana.