MADISON, Wis. - Someone's plans to harvest dozens of cannabis plants grown on the Wisconsin state Capitol grounds have gone up in smoke.
The plants sprouted in a tulip garden outside the Capitol, WMTV-TV reported Thursday.
Tatyana Warrick, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Administration, told The Associated Press in an email Friday that workers had removed the plants.
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University of Wisconsin-Madison botanist Shelby Ellison, who examined the plants for WMTV before they were removed, told the station that they were cannabis plants. But she told The Associated Press on Friday that she couldn't say for certain whether they were marijuana or hemp.
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"It was just a large number of plants for it to be anything accidental," Ellison said.
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Marijuana remains illegal in all forms in Wisconsin. Assembly Republicans introduced a bill last session that would have legalized marijuana for medical purposes, but they couldn't muster support among their state Senate counterparts and the measure never got a hearing.