Happy Cannabis Legalization Day!
In this free-content issue: expect to start smelling a lot more freedom in the air.
The Pre-Roll curates the most important cannabis news and developments at the intersection of policy, politics, and industry development. With over 1,500 subscribers, the Pre-Roll is Minnesota’s premier source for cannabis-related information and intelligence.
The Pre-Roll is written by Blunt Strategies, Minnesota’s first and only full-service strategic consultancy cultivated exclusively for the cannabis industry.
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1. Cannabis is now legal for adults to grow, possess, and use in Minnesota!
Don’t believe us? Here’s coverage from KSTP, Fox9, Axios, the Star Tribune, Marijuana Moment, Sahan Journal, TPT, and MPR about the big news.
From the Pioneer Press:
Advocates who worked on the bill, which passed the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party-controlled House and Senate with just a few Republican votes, say they created a framework that prioritizes small, local cannabis businesses. They promise a focus on equity and helping those most harmed by prohibition.
They’re confident all three markets can thrive in Minnesota.
“I think it is nation-leading,” said Leili Fatehi, a lawyer and lobbyist who spent years working on the legalization bill through her firm Blunt Strategies. “We pushed to create a bill that prioritized smaller, craft businesses.”
From Northtown News Now:
While legalization itself was a priority for the DFL entering the 2023 legislative session, the expungement of cannabis-related crimes was right alongside it.
“When I came to the Senate, I was really clear with leadership and my colleagues that this was something I was very interested in because it’s a racial justice issue,” said Senator Clare Oumou Verbeten (DFL - St. Paul).
For Oumou Verbeten and many others, expungement was a way of making the legalization process more fair for communities that have been historically harmed by prohibition.
“We are expunging those records and righting those wrongs,” said Oumou Verbeten, “[We] made it really clear as we were coming into the legislature that we’re not even interested in legalization if expungement is not a part of this.”
The process itself will begin as quickly as possible. In a blog post last month, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety explained that they expect to automatically seal 66,000 records tied to cannabis offenses. An additional 230,000 records will also be eligible for expungement.
From Cannabis Tech, Leili Fatehi, Partner & Principal at Blunt Strategies, stated:
“The potential for market growth is significant, but it’s the nature of this growth that’s truly exciting. We have the opportunity to build a diverse and vibrant cannabis market that reflects the unique spirit and character of Minnesota. This isn’t about mass production; it’s about quality, craftsmanship, and community.”
She continued, “Moreover, the law’s disincentivization of MSOs means that Minnesota’s entrepreneurs won’t be competing with large corporations with deep pockets. This levels the playing field. It’s a bold move that underscores Minnesota’s commitment to its entrepreneurs and its belief in the power of local business.”
As we previously reported in the Pre-Roll, the Red Lake sovereign tribal nation in Minnesota has plans to sell adult use cannabis today. WCCO News has an updated news story about their plans. Bring Me The News reports on their first day of sales.
MPR News is now reporting that another sovereign tribal nation in Minnesota, the White Earth Nation, “will begin selling it sometime in the first half of August. Both tribal members and non-tribal adults 21 years and older would be able to purchase from the nation’s dispensary.”
2. Events
2:30PM - Minnesota NORML is hosting a Legalization Day Event at Grounded Gardens in Saint Paul.
5:00PM - Legalized It - A Celebration of the Legalization of Cannabis in Minnesota at First Avenue
5:00PM - MN Doctors for Health Equity - Improving health for people who use drugs Community Conversation.
6:30PM - 7th St Sesh - Celebrate Legalization on a Closed City Street.
The topic of the Minnesota Medical Association’s next Emerging Topics in Healthcare forum on August 9th is adult use cannabis. Members have free access to these forums; non-members will be charged a fee of $20.
3. Our Canna Connect Event Was a Huge Success!
You can watch all of the day’s panel discussions on YouTube:
From KARE 11, “Recreational marijuana becomes legal for Minnesotans on Tuesday. While some are expressing concern, some business owners welcome the change. Canna Connect, which was held in Uptown, is just one of the events leading up to the legalization date of August 1. The event aimed to bring Minnesotans together over cannabis.”
From MPR News, “Hundreds gathered at Canna Connect in Minneapolis Saturday to learn more about the developing recreational cannabis industry in Minnesota.”
Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura even made a surprise announcement where he expressed “excitement for the potential of Minnesotans to grow and sell locally [during] a panel discussion on the future of cannabis product sales. He said he wants to personally involve himself in the industry here. […] ‘I want to put my name with Minnesota companies and make cannabis a prosperous business in Minnesota, by Minnesotans, keeping the money in Minnesota,’ he said.”
4. Prohibitionists Gonna Prohibition
Sometimes it is fun to listen to prohibitionists complain about the fact that we won. From the Garage Logic Podcast comes a conversation which largely regurgitates law enforcement talking points and ad hominem attacks, as you can tell by the title of the episode, “The adult children who legalized marijuana in Minnesota did not take into account the ramifications for law enforcement.”
The Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association’s Executive Director Jeff Potts voiced concerns over legalization on Kare11. [Insert joke about chiefing the potts here :-)]
The Star Tribune Editorial Board is spreading false claims about how easy it is to get high on someone else’s supply in outdoor spaces. “Smokable cannabis is an intoxicant for whoever breathes in the fumes, and can produce what's known in street parlance as a ‘contact high.’”
We don’t disagree that contact highs are real, but it requires a “hot box” type of set up where you are in an incredibly confined air tight space.
5. Minnesota Psychedelic Medicine Gets More Press
From the Star Tribune:
“Minnesota has always been in the middle of the pack on these types of topics," said Kurtis Hanna, a longtime conservative drug reform lobbyist and a public policy and government relations specialist with Blunt Strategies. "If we see in this next legislative session some sort of drastic reform when it comes to access to psychedelics, it's going to make the entire nation start to have a discussion of, 'Whoa, this is not just something the regular players are tackling.'"
6. Interpreting Minnesota’s New Cannabis Law in Context
As with all new laws passed by the Minnesota legislature, especially ones with criminal implications, there will be numerous battles waged in both the court of public opinion and in actual courts on what the law means in practice. New law can not be interpreted in a vacuum but, instead, must factor in myriad other considerations including other state statutes, previous court rulings, legislative intent, and both the state and federal Constitutions (not in that order).
Legality of Cannabis Use and Possession by Minors
Over a dozen Minnesota House Republicans recently requested Governor Walz call a special session to repeal the legalization of marijuana for children.
While this sounds like an odd claim for them to make, given the fact that the bill explicitly says individuals under the age of 21 can not possess or use cannabis, their concern wasn’t completely without merit.
On the morning of July 26, MinnPost published an article stating, “Starting Aug. 1 there will be no penalty for juveniles to possess and use cannabis. And unless cities and counties act by passing local ordinances against underage use, juveniles and anyone else can smoke and vape cannabis in most public places. […]
‘Underage possession and consumption is not illegal under state law,’ [nonpartisan House Researcher Ben] Johnson said during his presentation to an audience mostly of lawyers and law students. ‘The state law is silent on folks who are under 21. It is not a protected right in statute, something that you are automatically allowed to do. However, there’s no specific prohibition and there’s certainly no criminal penalties.’”
Initially the chief Senate author of HF100 seemed to agree with the nonpartisan drafter’s interpretation of the bill, stating on record in the MinnPost article that the juvenile decriminalization of use and possession of small amounts of marijuana was intentional.
From Marijuana Moment, “But despite their intent and the GOP concerns, the reporting […] has been updated, as it appears a separate statute would continue to make possession by people under 21 a default petty misdemeanor regardless of the broader legalization law.
Drug policy reform advocate and lobbyist Kurtis Hanna pointed MinnPost to the statute. It says that activities that are illegal—but for which there are no clear penalties—are automatically considered petty misdemeanors, punishable by a civil citation and fine of up to $300, without the threat of jail time.”
Once the MinnPost article was updated, the Senate DFL chief author of HF100, a spokesman for the Governor’s Office, and the House GOP caucus members who sent the letter all issued statements stating that possession and use of cannabis by those under the age of 21 is a petty misdemeanor under the new law.
Search and Seizure
From MPR News, Justin Collins, an assistant Washington County attorney who is assigned to that area’s drug task force, said, “I would expect that every marijuana case we charge going forward will be challenged in some way if the drugs were obtained via a vehicle search.” The same article quoted Bill Lemons, the traffic safety resource prosecutor for the Minnesota County Attorneys Association, who said, “Within Fourth Amendment searches and seizure, I would anticipate the Fourth Amendment issues would probably be heavily litigated pertaining to marijuana”.
From MinnPost, “Back in the pot-is-illegal days, a police officer who smelled marijuana on a driver or in a car could use that alone as probable cause to conduct a search of a car without first obtaining a search warrant from a judge. […] A recent appeals court case in State v. Lindekugel found that odor remains enough probable cause for a search but that it is better for it to be part of the “totality of the circumstances. […]
‘As the state correctly asserts, we are bound by precedent,’ the appeals court wrote in that decision. ‘Until that precedent is changed, the smell of marijuana emanating from a vehicle gives police probable cause to search that vehicle for contraband.’
‘With the new law, we’re all gonna find a way to litigate this,’ James Gempeler [a St. Paul criminal defense attorney] said. ‘It’s gonna be muddy for a while unless we get more guidance from those who allegedly know more than us. I think there is some gray area, and there are going to fights. The aroma of marijuana isn’t illegal anymore.’”From Northern News Now, “According to [Duluth Police Chief Mike] Ceynowa, drug-sniffing K-9s will still be utilized because those dogs are more trained to sniff for fentanyl, methamphetamine and heroin.
He added it is important the dogs alert to marijuana to ensure everything found is under the legal limit you’re allowed to possess.
“Oftentimes you’ll find more than one drug when they’re doing a search warrant,” Ceynowa said. ‘You may find marijuana, and that amount may be legal to possess within that location, but the fentanyl or methamphetamine or other drugs not.’”
The right to sell farm products without a license
The Minnesota Constitution says, “Sec. 7. “NO LICENSE REQUIRED TO PEDDLE. Any person may sell or peddle the products of the farm or garden occupied and cultivated by him without obtaining a license therefor.”
Does this provision mean Minnesotans over the age of 21 who legally grow cannabis at home are legally able to sell what they harvest?
Minnesota NORML presents an argument in their recent blog post that the answer may be yes in some situation, but they also provide some healthy skepticism in Minnesota’s courts by saying, “the outcome [of using this defense] could be uncertain”.
7. History
This Saturday, August 5th, marks 14 years since Blunt Strategies’ own Kurtis Hanna hosted his first informal public meeting to discuss cannabis law reform. This meetup group later ended up becoming the official Minnesota affiliate of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.