MADISON – Days after rejecting a medical marijuana plan, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said Friday he wants to debate the issue this fall even though it would be extremely difficult to pass.

Vos, of Rochester, in recent years has shown support for legalizing medical marijuana, but other Republicans who control the Legislature have expressed deep skepticism toward the idea.

"I'd like to have at least a discussion about medical marijuana," Vos said Friday when asked about his top priorities for lawmakers when they return to the Capitol in the fall.

He acknowledged that the idea is unlikely to go anywhere even if he finds enough support for it among the five dozen Republicans in his house. That's because of staunch opposition to the idea from Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald of Juneau.

Vos spoke of medical marijuana with reporters just after he formally sent the state budget to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. Republican lawmakers approved the budget this week after removing from it Evers' proposal to legalize medical marijuana and end penalties for recreational marijuana.

Vos said Republicans threw out Evers' marijuana plan because they did not think the issue should be dealt with as a budget issue. He said Evers' plan was unable to gain traction with Republicans because of the provisions on recreational marijuana.

"I do not support recreational marijuana," Vos said. "If we introduce a bill or had that discussion, it would be around the idea of saying how are we going to ensure that people who are sick and who potentially can have this as a treatment get it, but it does not fall into the hands of kids or people who just want to smoke it because they want to have recreational marijuana?"

Evers spokeswoman Melissa Baldauff noted making medical marijuana legal is broadly popular and said Evers had offered a "rational path forward on medical marijuana."

"It’s too bad that Robin Vos won’t listen to the will of the people," Baldauff said by email.

While Vos has backed medical marijuana, Senate Republicans have not.

“A proposal like what the governor put forward in his budget would have a difficult time getting Republican support in the Senate,” Fitzgerald of Juneau said in a statement.

Wisconsin officials are considering the issues as border states Illinois and Michigan prepare to implement new laws that will make recreational marijuana legal there.

Vos argued Illinois residents are "fleeing" the state.

"I think if all they've got to offer people is high taxes, high regulations, lower home values and marijuana, that should not be an economic growth strategy," Vos said. "So I'd much rather be Wisconsin, where we have more jobs than we can fill, rising wages, home values that are increasing and no recreational marijuana."

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Contact Patrick Marley at patrick.marley@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @patrickdmarley.