Minnesota House near passage of marijuana bill; Senate to vote Friday | MPR News
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Brian Bakst St. Paul April 24, 2023 4:48 PM PlayListenMinnesota House near passage of marijuana bill; Senate to vote Friday
Updated: April 25, 12:10 a.m. | Posted: April 24, 4:48 p.m.
Minnesota's foray into legal marijuana neared its first major decision point as the state House moved to the brink of passing a bill that establishes a seed-to-sale program and streamlines a process for clearing prior criminal offenses off records.
The House debated the bill for nearly three hours Monday night but delayed a final vote until Tuesday.
The House vote that will come during daylight hours Tuesday- along with one set for Friday in the Senate - won't end the debate. Differences in the two versions would have to be reconciled before anything reaches Gov. Tim Walz, who supports permitting adults over 21 to buy, possess and use cannabis.
But if a bill passes before May 22, Minnesota's marijuana landscape would change starting this summer.
"Cannabis will be no longer illegal this summer," said the bill's lead sponsor, Rep. Zack Stephenson, DFL-Coon Rapids. "The regulation, rulemaking and licensing process will take many more months. Beyond that you will of course also be able to home grow starting this summer, so it will be a while before Minnesotans can expect to see a dispensary open up."
Opponents of the bill acknowledged the votes appeared stacked against them. They attempted to alter the plan to give local officials more say in how cannabis is sold, provide law enforcement more tools to spot impairment and reduce fallout from addiction and youth use.
"We saw sort of the consequences of rolling out the edibles last year with no framework and no guidance. And it was a train wreck," said Rep. Kristin Robbins, R-Maple Grove. "And we don't want that to happen with legalization of marijuana because this will have even more significant consequences."
As the House debated the bill, Rep. Dave Baker, R-Willmar, tried unsuccessfully to increase the legal purchase age to 25, citing concerns over the drug's effect on brain development.
"Let's get it right out of the gate because if it goes in now at 21, it ain't changing," Baker said.
Rep. Jessica Hanson, DFL-Burnsville, spoke against the change.
"We allow 21-year-olds to legally consume toxins like alcohol, nicotine and tobacco," Hanson said. "We allow 18-year-olds to gamble, join the military, work in dangerous facilities and to serve those toxins to other people and, in my opinion, one of the more dangerous ones -- to get married, right? Unless and until we are going to stop all potentially life-altering decisions from happening before 25, we really can't start with cannabis."
The House also rejected an amendment that would have capped THC levels in cannabis products sold under the new system.
"We really need to limit the access that our young people have to these high potency THC levels because it's really harmful to their brain development," Robbins said, citing concerns among some in the medical community about the effects of high potency marijuana, but her amendment was defeated on a voice vote.
Republicans were also unsuccessful in trying to change the bill to allow local governments to prohibit cannabis businesses from operating in their communities and to have the power to issue or deny licenses for events involving cannabis.
Noting that the bill does require local governments to license cannabis businesses, Stephenson said he was trying to strike a balance.
"States that have allowed opt outs, that's where the illicit market continues to thrive and grow," he said. "We need to have a uniform set of cannabis standards across the state to make sure that we're doing the best we can to curb the illicit marketplace and move to a legitimate marketplace with consumer protections and controls."
The legislation also sets up a tax structure for both cannabis and products containing hemp-derived THC, which were given the state's blessing last year. House and Senate sponsors differ over what that tax should be, with the House version starting higher and falling as the industry matures; the Senate bill keeps it constant.
Stephenson said the elastic tax fits with his philosophy that the taxes merely cover the cost of regulations and to foster a buildout of a legal market.
Another facet of both bills is an expungement process to wipe prior marijuana convictions off of records, automatically in the case of low-level crimes and through a crisper process for those with extenuating factors.
The vote on the cannabis bill in the House didn't appear to line up along party lines.
One DFLer, Rep. Gene Pelowski of Winona, has said he was against legalization after also having voted against the bill when it cleared the House in 2021.
Republican Rep. Nolan West of Blaine said he would vote for it. At a morning news conference, he railed against what he saw as flaws in the licensure, social equity goals, treatment of hemp products and other aspects. But he said voting for the bill would probably land him on a House-Senate committee to work on a final version.
West said he remains concerned about abuse and about security of a nascent industry given that marijuana lacks legal status on the federal level.
"Unfortunately, even legal marijuana businesses are cash businesses," West said. "And we've seen in other states, they become targets for burglary."
The bill would permit people to keep up to 1.5 pounds in their home. They could transport and give away two ounces legally to a person of age, but would need to be a licensed business to sell larger quantities.
Robbins said those amounts were concerning to her.
"Two ounces is enough for 168 joints," she said. "The 1.5 pounds you're allowed to legally keep in your home is enough for 2,043 joints."
Stephenson said the long-standing prohibition of the drug hasn't worked and it's time to let people make responsible decisions about the drug.
"This is a historic day for Minnesotans who have been waiting for cannabis legalization for many, many years," he said. "We're going to get the job done this year."
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The MN House has passed the bill now (and maybe a joint) and the Senate will vote on this by Friday (after they get some KFC). With the Democratic majority in both chambers and the Governor's backing this is pretty much a done deal. So far the WI Republican dominated Legislator hasn't had the balls to go this far, but, if this does pass will be bookended by MN & MI.
This is great for Minnesota!
KFC? Surely somebody will bring a hot dish
It's Minnesota so ''Minnesota Hotdish'' or lefse, lutefisk, wild rice and walleye all good.
All famous Minnesota foods.
Cheers for Minnesota.
Growing up Minnesota Hotdish was tuna and egg noodles mixed with cream of chicken soup and potato chips crushed up on top. I still love that stuff, but I can't get my wife to eat it.
The men of the MN Senate requested the hotdish, but Senator Julia Coleman said she ain't cooking shit for those slobs until they clean up their rooms.
LOL!
I first heard the term "hot dish" on another forum from somebody from MN. In my neck of the woods we call them casseroles. She gave us a recipe for tater tot hot dish
I love tuna casserole except I use cream of shroom and saltines
I've had it both ways. Either is good by me.
if you live there, you need to buy a license, preferably transferable...
I live on the WI side of the border.
acquire a rental property or a trusted proxy.
When I visit family in Toledo OH I just drive right over the MI line and hit the dispensary. They don’t care about where you’re from. In fact, as a new customer I scored a $70 oz. The last time I got that kind of deal would have been in the early 80s and it was brown Mexican schwag.
Gross!
Colorado lets out of staters buy, too, but not as much as in staters
oh yeah, I'm spoiled...
Times were tough and you took what was available. Walking into a dispensary now days is incredible. Everything from mild to brain stew, and the cheapest stuff is still way better than the ditch weed of the 80s. And don’t even get me started on the edibles. My daughter gave me a bag of pretzel sticks. Five or six of those little things had me questioning my sanity and they were dangerously delicious.
That is becoming a problem. When Michigan legalized the deal was to keep it a Michigan thing, but the money in Colorado found its way in through fronts claiming to be Michigan business's, they bought up everything they could and developed them, mainly for quantity. Within 20 miles of me there are about 20 grows indoor and outdoor and the flooding of the market has dropped prices, now the Colorado firms are not paying their bills while the truly Michigan firms are for instead of quantity they are focused on quality.
A nearby town is getting upset, its a tourist town and now smells constantly of marijuana.
better the sweet smell of weed, instead of the stench of decomposing regressives...
Yet, Oklahoma has become one giant growhouse producing hundreds of tons of weed that Okies cannot possibly consume. Free market forces are at work because billions in profits are at stake...
If the "dead skunk in the middle of the road" smell is "sweet" then all the power to you, however the rest of that sentence needs clarification.
The gop reeks of "That Old People Smell"!
Like a mix of fungus, urine, shit and sweat.
When you flood the market you will start losing the profits and yet you are still required to pay the local, state, and federal taxes and fees on the tonnage you can't sell or dump at a lower price.
it used to cost me $200 per month to keep from shooting at republicans. now it costs me less than $200 per year...
I like the smell of marijuana
I think it should be legalized at the federal level and that everyone should just grow their own. If you love the plant then make it your hobby.
I love that idea...but then the cat would think I was growing a different variety of catnip
I did enough back then to know. I was poor and dirt weed was all I could afford to buy.
Again, whatever that means.
You do realize that these grows had to be Ok'd by the local townships and zoning boards and this area is basically solidly red and needed the residents and neighbors to Ok their operations.
One indoor grow is 1/2 mile from me and the neighbors and I went to the meetings for the zoning to install the grow, after their sales pitch, laying out their plans, and our questioning different aspects including air quality we were all in agreement to allow them to proceed, and get this, this is a solidly red area. The question is would you go to the meetings and learn what would you could about the business plans and the operations or would you just say "Marijuana, cool, go for it"?
I don't know how the weed laws work outside of colorado, and I don't really care...
I see you're the "Marijuana, cool, go for it" type. We on the other hand questioned things like air quality, which we found they will be using filtering in and charcoal filtering out to eliminate most of the odors, we informed them that the well water in this area sucks and either they use, like most in this area, water that is hauled in or use the roof runoff to supply their water, they opted for the roof runoff. We queried on the power usage if they were to run off just one leg or all three legs for power, they were to use all three legs of the 3-phase which meant to us that no one would experience power drops whenever they started up on a single leg (if you were also pulling off the same leg). What type of customer will they draw and how much traffic on the local roads, will we be seeing an increase in police presence, you know the local concerned community stuff.
my concerns about the local community are to make sure that rwnj lobotomy candidates stay out of office and the tax proceeds from weed sales continue to pour into the state treasury.
Well, sadly you've been getting your wish. Colorado is essentially blue now. Who do you recommend for mayor?
Yeah, that does seem to be the priority. We have outdoor grows being installed where a landowner and/or farmer could never even think about developing, because these areas are truly wet, and I mean very wet, lands. A farmer would be heavily fined or face jail time for even dropping a post hole in these areas let alone a plow furrow, but yet the outdoor grows are going in without even any mitigation. They just cleared another 40 acres of forest to install another one in a swampy area just a little over a mile from us. All the state alphabet agencies see is the tax income.
Here in Cali we legalized pot several years ago and (so far) we haven't fallen into the ocean.
It's coming you godless heathens! LOL
I dunno....youns came pretty close this past winter
just kidding, Stevie
Yeah, the rivers are full and there's still over 20 feet of snow up there.
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Whoa! And that will only put a dent in the drought problem from what I hear
Unlike many Republicans, floods don't discriminate. I don't wish harm on anybody.