Kare11
Minnesota legislators debate updates to cannabis law
Legislators are crafting changes to the state’s legal cannabis law to streamline business licensing process.
ST PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota lawmakers are debating changes to the state’s recreational cannabis law, with an eye toward helping new businesses gear up for 2025.
That’s when the state’s Office of Cannabis Management will start issuing licenses to retailers and others business categories in the in the legal marijuana industry.
“I have often said that we are 100 years post prohibition on liquor, and we are still making changes to the state’s liquor laws,” Rep. Zack Stephenson told the House Commerce Committee Wednesday. “People should expect changes to the state’s cannabis laws.”
Rep. Stephenson, a Coon Rapids Democrat, was the lead author of the 2023 legislation that legalized cannabis. He’s also carrying this year’s Cannabis Policy Bill, which updates the original law.
The legislation creates a pre-approval process for companies that gain licenses from the state to help them prepare for the beginning of legal sales of retail smokable cannabis products in 2025. It also sets statewide caps on the numbers of licenses, in hopes of avoiding the free-for-all scenario that has unfolded in other states that legalized the drug.
The most recent version of the bill, which passed the Commerce Committee, calls for the following limits on licenses:
- Microbusiness licenses: 100
- Mezzobusiness licenses: 11
- Cultivator licenses: 13
- Manufacturer licenses: 6
- Retailer licenses: 50
- Wholesaler licenses: 20
- Transporter licenses: 20
- Testing facility licenses: 25
- Cannabis event organizer licenses: 10
- Cannabis delivery service licenses: 10
If there are too many equally qualified applicants chasing the same licenses, the OCM will grant the licenses based on a lottery system.
“The existing law has a lottery in it. People should know that and understand that,” Stephenson said.
“It has a point-based system, but in the event there are multiple applicants who have the same number of points and there are more people at that stage than licenses they can issue, the way the agency’s supposed to decide who to give license to is by lottery.”
Charlene Briner, the OCM’s interim director, said that the minimum standards to qualify for a license won’t change as a result of the lottery system. Stephenson’s bill makes it clear that a lottery system will be used if there are more applicants than licenses.
“We do not propose removing any of the rigorous requirements for license applicants that are already included in law,” Briner told the committee.
“We also want to make sure we’re including additional protections against some of the concerns we’ve heard about flooding the zone, or multiple applicants, or some of the advantage larger multi-state operators that any applicant may use to try to gain the advantage in the system.”
Last year’s legislation called for adding to an applicant’s points to achieve social equity, to acknowledge the historic, disproportionate impact of the marijuana prohibition.
“We are looking at a lottery system for both social equity applicants and for general applicants, and we are looking at a well-qualified, or well-vetted lottery that includes the merit-based components that already exist in Chapter 342.”
WATCH MORE ON KARE 11+
Download the free KARE 11+ app for Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV and other smart TV platforms to watch more from KARE 11 anytime! The KARE 11+ app includes live streams of all of KARE 11’s newscasts. You’ll also find on-demand replays of newscasts; the latest from KARE 11 Investigates, Breaking the News and the Land of 10,000 Stories; exclusive programs like Verify and HeartThreads; and Minnesota sports talk from our partners at Locked On Minnesota.
Watch the latest local news from the Twin Cities and across Minnesota in our YouTube playlist:
The newly elected board unanimously accepted it during a special board meeting Thursday night.
BURNSVILLE, Minn — STEP Academy officials said the school is taking steps to pay off its debt after letting go teachers, administrators, and people who worked in operations to balance their budget.
“We’re very sad we had to reduce our budget based on our enrollment but that was a necessary step so that we could stay financially secure,” said Paul Scanlon, STEP Academy’s chief operations officer.
Scanlon corrected a statement made by the St. Paul charter school’s finance director on Monday who said the school has an operating budget deficit of $2.1 million.
“It’s projected by the end of the year that it will roughly – 2.1% of our overall budget. It’s not 2.1 thousand or 2.1 million,” Scanlon said.
He said that’s roughly $275,000, which is how much debt the charter school will have by the end of the academic year.
“Through careful financing, we’ve been able to pay off some of our debt and get that number lower and lower,” he said.
Scanlon said under the Minnesota Department of Education, a school must be at least -2.5% to be considered in statutory operational debt.
The newly elected board started on Monday. Scanlon said there was some confusion about their appointment, but he said the plan was to seat them at their annual meeting on Oct. 21. He said all of the new board members were elected to their positions.
“Candidates nominated or being nominated for the positions to expand the expertise and size our of board took several weeks of getting the nominations and having ballots prepared,” he said.
The board unanimously voted to accept Superintendent Mustafa Ibrahim’s resignation. He said his last day will be Nov. 4. In his letter, he said “my time leading STEP Academy has been the most rewarding period of my career.”
Scanlon said they will not be looking for an immediate replacement.
“At this time based on our finances, based on the strength that we’re seeing from our two principals on both sites, we feel like we can cover many of those components and then we would look to post for the 25-26 school year,” he said.
The board also approved an Ad Hoc committee’s report on the job description of the superintendent of educational services for when they do hire someone for that role.
The board unanimously voted to postpone filling two school board vacancies until they have appointed a chair, vice chair, secretary, and treasurer. They’ll discuss it again at their next meeting, and possibly decide how they want to fill those seats.
“We’re 50 ahead of where we were, 50 deaths,” Mike Hanson said. “50 families who have lost a loved one more than we were at this time last year.”
MINNEAPOLIS — It’s a frustrating trend for Mike Hanson, director of the Office of Traffic Safety within the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.
“Anytime I see an incident like the one that took place last night, I’m angry,” Hanson said. “It’s really hard to put into words, because this is exactly the type of thing that we work to prevent.”
Wednesday night, a 29-year-old man from St. Paul exited eastbound I-94 onto Lyndale Avenue in Minneapolis. The crash report says that man was traveling at a “high rate of speed.” That man hit several cars, killing a 26-year-old Minneapolis woman and injuring several others.
“That is the one thing that makes every bad decision worse, because speed brings energy, and energy is what results in injury and death,” Hanson said.
Data provided by DPS shows that there have been nearly 150 accidents in and near the area where this happened since January 2021. Some don’t involve alcohol, some do. Hanson said it’s their goal to make sure alcohol is never a factor.
“There is literally no excuse today for somebody to wind up in the back seat of a squad car, an ambulance or heaven forbid a hearse, because of an impaired driving decision,” he said.
Unfortunately, data shows that fatal accidents are up in Minnesota so far this year.
“We’re 50 ahead of where we were, 50 deaths,” Hanson said. “50 families who have lost a loved one more than we were at this time last year.”
Hanson said they work with different agencies across the state to help assist with education and prevention before anyone gets behind the wheel impaired.
“Our basic message is impaired is impaired. It doesn’t matter what it is that you’re impaired by, if you feel different, you will drive different,” he said. “And if you’re sitting behind the wheel and you have to ask yourself should I drive? It’s already too late.”
Police said the suspect in an alleged armed burglary is described similarly to someone who was reportedly looking into windows in the city earlier the same day.
BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. — Police in Brooklyn Park are urging residents to make sure their windows and doors are locked after an alleged armed burglary in the city on Thursday.
According to police, residents on the 1700 block of 73rd Ave N. were coming home around 7:30 p.m. when they discovered a man in their home. The man pointed a gun at them and then fled, officials said.
The suspect is described by law enforcement as Black, 5’9 or 5’10, a skinny build, with a beard. He was reportedly wearing a black hoodie and pants.
Police said a man with a similar description was reportedly looking into windows and trying door handles around the 7500 block of Newton Ave N and Meadowwood Drive earlier on Thursday. In that case, the suspect was wearing a black hoodie with white lettering, a black coat with red sleeves, and light-colored pants, officials said.
“In light of these incidents, Brooklyn Park Police are urging residents in the area to ensure that all windows and doors are securely locked,” an alert from police said, adding if anyone notices “suspicious activity” they should call 911.
Brooklyn Center Police had similar sightings as well, according to law enforcement.
