Is Wisconsin losing millions to states where cannabis is legal?

Michael Sickler
Apr 24
2 min read

Updated: Apr 30

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

March 23, 2026, 5:04 a.m. CT

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel collaborated with Wisconsin Watch to develop this fact brief. Wisconsin Watch is a member of the Gigafact program, newsrooms across the U.S. that deliver bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read more about our methodology at jsonline.com/FactBriefMethods.

Yes

Cannabis isn’t legal in Wisconsin, so residents are purchasing it in states where it is, generating tax money for those states.

Wisconsin borders three states with legal recreational cannabis: Michigan, which legalized it in 2018; Illinois, which legalized it in 2019; and Minnesota, which legalized it in 2023.

Illinois tracks cannabis sales by in-state versus out-of-state purchasers. A 2023 analysis from Wisconsin’s nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau found that Illinois collected $36.1 million in tax revenue in 2022 from out-of-state residents who purchased cannabis in counties bordering Wisconsin.

About half of cannabis sales in 2022 at dispensaries in Illinois counties that border Wisconsin were to out-of-state residents, the analysis found.

Michigan and Minnesota do not track nonresident cannabis purchases.

In Michigan, marijuana tax revenue is shared with local governments and tribes, as well as the state’s School Aid and Transportation funds.

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