WMC makes an idiotic comment on weed

I know Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce are right-wing lowlifes, but what they said today left me dumbfounded.

Wisconsin's biz lobby @WisconsinMC against Evers' plan to legalize marijuana in some cases. "Not only does Evers’ plan put Wisconsin at odds with federal law, the state’s business leaders are concerned about the impacts marijuana decriminalization will have on workplace safety."

— Molly Beck (@MollyBeck) February 18, 2019

There's a lot wrong with that take.

1. IT IS ILLEGAL AND FIRABLE TO OPERATE EQUIPMENT WHILE HIGH. Whether that substance is booze, opiods, weed, or other prescription medications. How would allowing marijuana to be legal with a prescription change that reality?

Wisconsin's Lieutenant Governor found it odd that WMC isnt concerned about a more common type of impairment in our state.

Workplace safety... Half of the nation's drunkest cities are in Wisconsin. https://t.co/1Au8ltff08

— Mandela Barnes (@TheOtherMandela) February 18, 2019

2. Given how many people get hooked on much more addictive and damaging opiods to deal with pain and keep working, and if they're hooked, they become unproductive if not outright dangerous in the work place. Wouldn't we rather have people self-medicating after work with a much less addictive drug like cannabis? Seems like a no-brainer to me.

3. WMC and other business groups have constantly complained about the "skills gap" and the inability to find qualified employees. Evers' initiative would expunge the records of some people with convictions for pot possession, and would only give a ticket to people in the future that get popped for weed, instead of having a criminal conviction on their record.

Both of these effects should increase the availability of qualified labor in Wisconsin, which WMC allegedly wants. In addition, having fewer people in prison and/or with limited job prospects reduces social and fiscal costs, which theoretically can allow for lower taxes or a better use of resources that improves goods and services that businesses use.

As Evers notes, dercriminalizing pot could lower the racial disparities that have limited Wisconsin's economic and social growth.

Wisconsin has the highest incarceration rate in the country for Black men, and drug-related offenses make up as much as 75-85% of inmate populations.

By decriminalizing marijuana, we’ll begin to address racial disparities and cycles of poverty in communities across our state.

— Governor Tony Evers (@GovEvers) February 18, 2019

You'd think that would be in the interests of businesses that want to succeed. So why isn't WMC supporting Evers' plans to change marijuana laws?

Because WMC isn't about improving the quality of the Wisconsin economy and making Wisconsin more competitive in the 21st Century economy, but instead they are GOP hacks who are rent-seekers that try to steal as many tax dollars and suppress wages by any means they can.

WMC's "business leaders" are a big reason why our state's economy got left behind the rest of the country over the last 8 years, and today's idiotic, partisan response to Tony Evers' proposals on marijuana are another example of why those regressive fools should be ignored at all turns.