Now we have been following Minnesota’s progress on hashish legalization for some time right here on the regulation agency. It’s a state with large potential, and experiences from our attorneys at CannaCon final weekend had been glowing. As a local Minnesotan (Duluth; Moorhead) who ceaselessly returns to the state, I’m personally rooting laborious.
There’s a lot to love about Minnesota and hashish. One, it’s form of an island. To the west are North and South Dakota, that are digital hashish backwaters. The identical might be mentioned for Iowa to the south, and Wisconsin (so unhappy!) due east. Second, Minnesota is a populous state, with greater than 5.7 million inhabitants. Third, Minnesota is an agriculture state, and the 12th largest state by space. Fourth, it’s reliably blue.
However fifth, for those who ask me what I like greatest about Minnesota’s hashish surroundings to this point, it’s this: the state appears eager on avoiding overregulation of hashish. You may see it in the first draft of rules launched by the Workplace of Hashish Administration (“OCM”) on July 31, 2024. Should you’d moderately not learn all of that, and even take my phrase for it, OCM itself has mentioned as a lot. In that Workplace’s words, the proposed guidelines:
“replicate a need to assemble a regulatory surroundings that (1) focuses on outcomes and affords regulated entities the autonomy to decide on the very best path to compliance, (2) is designed to be scalable with the Minnesota system of microbusiness licenses, mezzobusiness licenses, and activity-specific licenses, and (3) the place potential, minimizes regulatory duplication by counting on current state regulation.”
Let’s go!
I’ve written a lot on this weblog about what states ought to be doing as they roll out hashish packages. See: Ten Recommendations for State Cannabis Regulation. Usually talking, Minnesota is doing an excellent job adhering to the mannequin. (I plan to do a deeper dive on the draft guidelines themselves in weeks to come back). But when issues go as marketed, hashish in Minnesota will likely be regulated extra rationally, and fewer oppressively, than what we’re seeing in some other state.
Anybody visiting Minnesota for the previous couple of years can have seen this milieu taking form. Native buyers have been capable of stroll into grocery shops and purchase hemp-THC drinks for a few years now. Hell, you may even get these drinks on tap at this level, in sure bars, eating places, and breweries. As soon as adult-use hashish companies are licensed, shopping for weed in Minnesota ought to resemble buying alcohol at a bottle store, greater than something.
It’s additionally price mentioning that Minnesota Statute Chapter 342, the regulation underpinning the Minnesota hashish program, as amended and signed by Tim Walz on Could 24, 2024, is obvious that dwelling cultivation of hashish is allowed in Minnesota in the present day. Nobody has to attend for a OCM guidelines to drop. In the meantime, the hemp regime is being correctly folded into the construction, and the medical cannabis program (round since 2015) continues to be in place.
Right here on the regulation agency, we’re actively working with Minnesota social fairness candidates and potential licensees, and we’ll proceed to trace this house because the draft guidelines evolve. The following “deadline” is the shut of the remark interval on these draft guidelines, which is August 30 (subsequent Friday). Later this yr, OCM will publish a discover of intent to undertake revised guidelines within the State Register, with last guidelines focused for spring 2025.
Till then, maintain your eyes on Minnesota hashish. I’m.
