1. MNLeg on Spring Break
→ The legislature is in recess this week for spring break woohoo. Committees and legislative activities will resume on Tuesday, April 19 which’ll give Gazelka an extra day to scrub off the henna tramp stamp and comb out the beaded cornrows (j/k he’s not allowed back at Club Med after the foam party incident).
2. 4/20 Rally at the Capitol Rotunda
→ Join the cannabis advocacy community on Tuesday, April 20 from 3:00PM to 4:20PM for a rally in the Capitol rotunda. Speakers will include legislators and leaders from cannabis advocacy groups.
3. PACing a Big Doink
→ After the rally on Tuesday, head on over to Fair State Brewing between 4:00PM to 11:00PM for the release of Legalize Big Doinks, a limited-edition version of Fair State’s Big Doinks IPA that’s blended with hyper-potent terpenes (67% Louis XIII and 33% Grapefruit Kush). But what makes it even more delicious is that a portion of the proceeds from Legalize Big Boinks crowlers and merch will be donated to the MNisReady Political Action Fund to support the election of pro-legalization legislators and other elected officials this November. “Merch?” you ask.That’s right, I said merch–there’ll be Legalize Big Doinks tees, stash jars, rolling papers, and trays for sale. “But this all sounds too low-brow for me, an intellectual,” you say? Well, House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler isn’t showing up for your Wednesday night literary fiction club because he’s going to be drinking a Big Doink in the beer garden as he talks about how to get involved in the fight to legalize adult-use cannabis in Minnesota (and that dude went to Harvard, so there).
4. Rochester Post Bulletin Covers Local Angle on Delta-8
→ The Rochester Post Bulletin published an article this week about the local retail market for delta-8 products. From the article:
“Smoke shops in Rochester have increased their inventory of CBD products over the last five years, including the rise of delta-8 in said inventories. The shops include Rochester Smoke Shop, Hempire, the Melting Clock Smoke Shop, and Downtown Intimates [...] Hempire CEO Shelly Buchanan spoke about the importance of educating people on CBD and delta-8 products and how her store strives above all else to be an information resource. ‘The biggest thing for our store specifically is education on delta-8. All of our staff have to take a course in order to work at the store. You cannot work there unless you pass the course because I want to make sure people are educated. That's huge,’ Buchanan said.”
5. Meanwhile, at the neighbors’…
→ A GOP-authored bill to legalize medical cannabis will receive its first hearing in Wisconsin on April 20. Yea, it’s cute and all to give the bill a hearing on 4/20 except Wisconsin's GOP-controlled legislature has already adjourned until 2023. Per the article, the same medical cannabis bill was introduced during the legislative session but died without a hearing, as did several other partisan and bipartisan cannabis bills.
She said it so I don’t have to: Per an AP story on the bill, “Democratic Sen. Melissa Agard, the chief proponent for full legalization, said holding a hearing on the bill after the Legislature had adjourned was ‘a cynical political ploy that gives people false hope about the prospects of this legislation.’”
→ A group called New Approach North Dakota is trying to take a…wait for it… new approach to legalizing adult-use cannabis in North Dakota by putting it on the ballot this November. A prior effort to get the issue on the ballot in 2020 failed because COVID ruined everything and efforts to legalize via GOP-authored legislation in 2021 succeeded in passing the House but was defeated in the Senate, both of which are GOP-controlled. Check out Marijuana Moment for the details.
6. As for the Native American Tribes…
→ Politico published a must-read article last week about the problems Native American tribes across the country face when trying to establish medical or adult-use cannabis industries. As the article explains in detail, “State and territorial medical marijuana markets have been protected by Congress for years. But Native American tribes were never included in those protections. In fact, some tribes gave up part of their sovereignty to states in order to protect their cannabis markets from federal intervention.”