Minnesota Senate approves cannabis legalization bill

The Minnesota Senate last week voted to pass a bill legalizing recreational marijuana, just days after the House of Representatives passed an accompanying measure legalizing adult-use cannabis. The bill, Senate File 73, passed the Senate on Friday by a 34-33 vote, with all Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) senators voting in favor of the bill and all Republicans voting against.

The bill would legalize the possession and use of cannabis by adults 21 and older and create a regulatory framework for the production and sale of recreational marijuana. Adults may purchase up to two ounces of cannabis, 8 grams of cannabis concentrates, or edibles containing up to 800 milligrams of THC. Home growing of marijuana would also be allowed, with adults allowed to grow up to eight cannabis plants at home.

DFL Senator Lindsey Port, the lead sponsor of the bill, said it’s time to change Minnesota’s marijuana policy.

“Cannabis prohibition is a failed system that has failed to achieve desired goals and has caused incredible costs to our communities, especially communities of color,” she said in a statement cited by the Associated Press.

With the bill, Port said lawmakers have “an opportunity to undo some of the damage done and create a unique regulatory regime that works for Minnesota consumers and businesses while providing an opportunity in this new market for communities that… have been most affected by the ban.”

Port added that the measure has been carefully scrutinized by lawmakers, who made several changes to the legislation as it worked its way through the legislative process.

“Minnesotans are ready. Attitudes are changing,” she told Minnesota Public Radio. “Now is our time to reverse decades of ineffective and harmful bans.”

After the bill passed the Senate, Democratic Gov. Tim Walz said he would approve the bill that would make Minnesota the 23rd state in the nation to end marijuana prohibition.

“Legalizing adult cannabis and overturning cannabis convictions is good for our economy and is the right move for Minnesota,” Walz wrote on Twitter on Friday. “When the bill reaches my desk, I’ll be proud to sign it.”

The bill also includes measures to deal with the damage caused by decades of cannabis prohibition, including a provision to vacate convictions for many marijuana-related offenses. DFL Senator Claire Oumou Verbeten said the legislation was necessary to end the racial disparities repeatedly seen in the country’s drug law enforcement.

“We owe it to the people most affected by this ban. It’s our communities of color. They are black Minnesotans, especially black men,” said DFL Senator Claire Oumou Verbeten. “We owe them that. We can legalize that. We can regulate it. We can wipe out,” she said. “Because we have to and because it’s a matter of racial justice.”

Minnesota House also passes legalization bill

Also last week, a companion bill to the Senate measure was passed by the Minnesota House of Representatives, setting the stage for a conference committee to resolve disagreements between the two bills. After the conference committee resolves differences between the bills, the House and Senate vote on the final version of the bill.

Key differences between each version of the legislation include a two-pound cannabis possession limit in the House bill, while the Senate version allows adults to possess up to five pounds of marijuana, including no more than two pounds from a source other than home-grown. The Senate bill allows local governments to limit the number of cannabis retailers. The House bill contains no such restrictions, although both versions do not allow cities and counties to enact an outright ban on pharmacies. In addition, the Senate version imposes a 10% tax on cannabis products, while the House version sets the tax rate at 8%.

Both bills establish an Office of Cannabis Management to oversee the licensing and regulation of cannabis companies. Ryan Winkler of the MN is Ready coalition, a group that has campaigned for the legislation and helped develop it, said there could be “a few bumps along the way” when regulations to pass the legislation differ from the new one agency to be worked out.

“As we’ve seen in any other market – and I suspect any market where you’re developing a new product and there’s a lot of consumer demand – it’s difficult to match supply and demand at first, and after the initial exuberance comes it usually leads to a shakeout,” Winkler said. “We see that in other states as well. There have been many cannabis company consolidations in other states. So we anticipate the challenges.”

All 33 Senate Republicans voted against the bill, with senators citing concerns about public safety, drug abuse and control of the illicit marijuana market.

“Following our analysis, we have concluded that this legislation is simply not enough — not enough for public safety, not enough or not enough for public health,” said Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson. “And our local governments are really, really at the end of the stick.”