Conference Committees Take the Wheel
1. MNLeg Bills are now in the hands of conference committees
→ The public safety omnibus bill and health and human services omnibus bill have both passed off the House and Senate floors and are headed to their respective conference committees. This is where tracking bills gets particularly difficult for members of the public because the bill numbers get all screwy and negotiations happen behind even more tightly closed doors than usual.
The House- and Senate-passed versions of the public safety omnibus bill are now called SF 2673. This website will be populated with a side-by-side comparison of the House and Senate versions of the bill, as well as the list of members from each chamber that are appointed as conferees. We're fairly confident that Rep. Aisha Gomez (DFL-Minneapolis) and Sen. Mark Koran (R-North Branch) will be the lead conferees for their respective sides.
The HHS omnibus has not yet been assigned a conference committee website, but keep an eye out here for when it is.
2. Trix are for kids and cannabis is for adults
→ The Star Tribune published an article about a push from the Consumer Brands Association and several large food companies, including Minnesota-based General Mills and Post Consumer Brands, for Congress to pass legislation preventing the sale of cannabis edibles that mimic their product branding and packaging. Per the article, Minnesota's hemp industry is in full support. The article quotes Nothing But Hemp and Minnesota Cannabis Association founder Steven Brown as saying, “The Minnesota Cannabis Association is against all THC edibles that are look-a-likes. It shouldn't be in front of kids. We believe all packaging needs to be labeled properly and be child-proof as well." The article also quotes MN NORML lobbyist Kurtis Hanna as saying, “The industry wants to have legitimacy and for the good actors to be rewarded and the bad actors to be essentially kicked out. To do that we need legislators to step up and hopefully provide that benefit to the industry that's crying out for regulation."
3. WCCO tests CBD and Delta 8 products
→ WCCO published the results on independent testing it conducted on 10 popular CBD products and found some instances of discrepancies with the actual products as compared to the products' labels. Per the article, “Overall, the testing found varying results. 'Some are high, some are low, some are over the legal limit, and some are missing compounds that they claim,” [Emily] Hoffman [of Legend Technical Services] said. Hoffman says a number of gummies had close to what was advertised, with some variation. The capsule was right on, a tincture had a little more CBD than listed, another had just under the advertised THC.” The article features statements from some of the companies whose products were tested which indicate some of the challenges industry members face with regulatory standards that are not scientifically or practically well aligned with the realities of cannabis product manufacturing.
4. MDH info on petitioning to add conditions to the medical cannabis program
→ The Minnesota Department of Health has published information on its website detailing how members of the public can submit petitions to the Office of Medical Cannabis to add a qualifying medical condition or delivery method. The petitioning period is open from June 1 to July 31.
For more information or guidance, we recommend reaching out to our friends at Sensible Minnesota.
5. Coverage of MN hemp businesses
→ Fox 21 over in Wisconsin covered the opening of Minnesota-based Superior Cannabis Company's third retail location. The new shop is on Tower Avenue in downtown Superior. The company's other two locations are in the Canal Park area of Duluth and in the southern Minnesota town of Austin. According to the article, the company's CEO Jeff Brinkman said Wisconsin's laws around CBD and CBG are less restrictive than those in Minnesota.
→ Minnesota Monthly published a sponsored article profiling Minny Grown, a hemp company based in Cannon Falls, MN. Per the article, “Beyond growing their hemp the company also processes all of its own CBD products at its state of the art facility just steps away from their hemp field. The company is one of the few original hemp license holders in Minnesota, and is one of the only hemp companies in the country to have registered their facility with the FDA.”