Retiring Guy's Digest: It's freak-out time again for the Wisconsin GOP

Tuesday, February 3, 2026

It's freak-out time again for the Wisconsin GOP

Headline: Wisconsin Public Radio, 2/2/2026

Anya Van Wagtendonk reports:

In a bid to capitalize on recent bipartisan pushes to regulate the state’s hemp industry, Wisconsin Democrats have introduced a bill to fully legalize marijuana.

But the effort to create legal recreational and medical programs is all but sure to fail. Republicans, who control both chambers of the Legislature, have not taken up previous Democratic attempts at legalization and have nixed repeated attempts by Gov. Tony Evers to include legalization in his state budgets. GOP leadership has said it will only consider limited medical programs.

Still, Democrats who introduced their latest proposal Monday said that, in the face of a changing federal approach to hemp regulation, full legalization would be both an economic boon for the state, and a way to limit incarceration.

According to Merriam-Webster, the first known use of 'freak-out' occurred in 1966.

Other coinages from the same year include: