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How marijuana legalization could impact THC seltzers and edibles
Minnesota’s hemp-derived THC market has boomed in the last year, but those in the business have concerns about the impact of new regulations, taxes.
MINNEAPOLIS — Recreational marijuana will likely be one step closer to legalization following a vote in the Minnesota Senate on Friday.
As legislators in both the House and Senate prepare to hammer out the details of two different legalization bills in the days to come, questions remain about the impact a new law would have on Minnesota’s current, hemp-based THC industry.
Businesses that produce and sell low-potency THC seltzers, gummies and other products containing hemp-derived THC, have had mixed reactions to some of the new regulations, licensing requirements, and taxes that might apply to the products they’ve sold for the past year.
Hemp-derived THC seltzers and gummies have become popular offerings at Indeed Brewing Company in Minneapolis since they launched in 2022.
“Here in this taproom, every few minutes someone is making a purchase of some sort of THC product,” said Tom Whisenand, co-founder and CEO of Indeed Brewing Company. “It’s become popular and that’s at a time when people are consuming a little bit less alcohol.”
Whisenand says he’s happy to see the current recreational marijuana bills in the Minnesota House and Senate would both allow breweries to keep producing and selling those hemp-based products. He’s also happy to see the bills create a legal path for sales of those products in liquor stores, but he says whether they stay on the menu will likely depend on how prices and demand will shift after legalization.
“So far, what we’re doing with hemp-derived products in Minnesota has actually been working really well, consumers like it, businesses like it, it’s created a niche business,” Whisenand said. “But if you add a huge tax on top of that, if you add on a lot of back-end regulation that causes us to incur costs here at the brewery or any other hemp-derived manufacturer, then that could cause the products to basically be unviable at the commercial level.”
Chair of the pro-legalization MN is Ready campaign, Ryan Winkler, says many of the remaining concerns and questions from hemp-derived producers and retailers will be sorted out in the conference committee.
“Most people in the existing THC or hemp industry are very happy with the legislation as it is moving through right now,” Winkler said. “The ultimate goal is to keep a thriving hemp industry, a low-potency THC industry.”
Winkler helped pass the current hemp-derived THC law as a legislator in 2022, but he says the current bill includes new guardrails to an industry that lacked regulation.
“We are making clear that breweries can create these products; we are making clear that liquor stores can sell them; we are making clear that there are limits on how much THC you can actually sell in a serving or in a product as you’re making it and selling it across the state,” Winkler said. “So we are keeping open widespread availability but we are creating stronger rules for making sure that it is actually a low-potency product that is being sold across the state.”
Steven Brown, the owner of Nothing But Hemp and president of the Minnesota Cannabis Association, says those low-potency products shouldn’t be addressed in the same bill as high-potency, recreational cannabis.
“We’re for legalization,” Brown said. “But the hemp portion of the bill needs serious fixes.”
Both Brown and Whisenand are still hoping to see Minnesota expand its definition of “low-potency” products beyond the current limit of five milligrams of THC.
“In most recreational markets you’re looking at 10mg of Delta 9 THC,” Brown said. “So it’s about half the strength is allowed in this state. This bill puts recreational marijuana, which is federally illegal, and legal hemp underneath the same umbrella. This is going to harm many small, black-owned businesses like mine that have never had a seat at the table.”
Both the House and Senate bills would currently tax both low-potency THC products at the same rate as high-potency cannabis products, but Winkler says the legislation does not treat the products the same.
“(Hemp-derived THC) is really not regulated in the same way,” Winkler said. “Licensing is going to be very easy, you will still be able to buy it in grocery stores and liquor stores, which no state has for adult-use cannabis. You are going to have a low-potency market that is going to be widely available and a high-potency market that is only available in certain places.”
Still, Brown says other unanswered questions surrounding taxes and uncertainty around the licensing process, and lag time before regulations go into place, have him worried about his businesses long term.
“We would probably go out of business in Minnesota very rapidly, and so we have plans on moving out of state completely because of the way that this law is written,” he said.
Tom says Indeed Brewing isn’t going anywhere, but the fate of their THC products are still up in the air.
Kent Erdahl: “Does it feel like the future of THC drinks here will depend on that last negotiation between the two bills?”
Whisenand: “Yeah, I think it does. The devil is going to be in the details and how this all works out economically and regulation-wise is on the other end.”
One of the major differences between the two current legalization bills involves taxes. The House bill calls for an eight percent tax for the first four years, which would drop to five percent after that. The Senate bill currently calls for a flat, ten percent tax. Both rates would rank among the lowest marijuana taxes for high-potency products, but the taxes would be high for hemp-derived products. For the last year, those THC products sold in Minnesota have faced no additional taxes.
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Justin Ekelman’s business, Shrimply the Best, has a fan following.
MARICOPA COUNTY, Ariz. — There are things you expect to see along a desert highway and then there are Justin Ekelman’s hand-painted signs.
Drivers on State Route 347 between Phoenix and Maricopa usually pass them before they see the old, white cargo van Ekelman parks in a dirt lot off Riggs Road.
He is a man, with a van, who sells seafood.
“I do this year-round, I sweat it out and then when the winter comes, the snowbirds come back and it’s amazing,” Ekelman said. “You can’t bring enough; you can’t fill this thing enough.”
He is also not oblivious to what some people think when they see his Pike Place Market on four wheels: Seafood from a van in the desert? It seems a little sketchy. And a little dangerous.
But if you stop, Ekelman will proudly show you his frozen food vendor permit and other licenses one needs to sell shrimp and scallops on the side of the road.
Ekelman’s business, Shrimply the Best, has a fan following. In fact, one-third of voters in a recent InMaricopa poll named his seafood van their favorite food source.
Shrimp from Rocky Point are his bestsellers but Ekelman keeps his chest freezer stocked with Caribbean lobster tails, mussels and a variety of fish, too. An extension cord plugged into a gas-powered generator keeps everything frozen even when it’s 115 degrees outside.
“If it was sitting in a cooler in ice, it may be a little weird,” Ekelman said.
Selling seafood out of a van has provided Ekelman, a single father of two teenage boys, with enough to pay his bills and keep a roof over their heads. He feels more blessed than he did 15 years ago during the Great Recession.
Ekelman bought his first home in 2008, then lost his job as a carpet and air duct cleaner.
“Long story short, I ended up having to short sell my home, lived with my parents for a year and a half. My dad said come do this,” Ekelman said.
His father, a former door-to-door meat salesman, ventured into the roadside seafood business 40 years ago. Ekelman said his dad used wet rags to keep himself cool during the summer months.
“I did it one year like that. Why would you do that when you could buy a $130 air conditioner? I made a stand, put it in my window, now I have a little cold room,” Ekelman said, pointing to the curtains at the front of his van.
His father retired more than a decade ago and Ekelman retained many loyal customers. The business has not changed much since then, including the rudimentary hand-painted signs along the highway. Those are informative – and nostalgic.
“Ahead: Rocky Point Shrimp,” one of them reads.
“I go to Home Depot, get the wood, get them cut and paint them up, that’s how my dad always did it,” Ekelman said. “I have people stopping all the time saying ‘I can make you professional signs’ and I‘m like, ‘Bro, this is what people see. It’s a lot cheaper.’”
Ekelman also gets his seafood from the same source: His dad’s friend who owns a distributing company and gets seafood shipped to the Valley from across the globe. The company supplies seafood to restaurants, cruise liners and small fry (we couldn’t resist) like Ekelman.
“A lot of people assume I am getting it all from Mexico, it’s not,” Ekelman said. “A lot of the shrimp do but I just had salmon from Alaska, my lobster tails right now are out of the Bahamas, I have got orange roughy from New Zealand, the catfish is from here in the U.S., all sorts of different places but it is wild caught.”
Ekelman said he gets a good deal buying wholesale but the COVID pandemic forced him to raise his prices.
“My lobster tails, I was paying $5 a tail cheaper near 2019, COVID hit and everything went up,” Ekelman said. “I have tried to keep it pretty reasonable but my profit margins have gone down.”
Shrimply the Best accepts cash and credit cards.
A pound of raw, frozen shrimp ranges from $9 to $12 per pound depending on the size and type. Ekelman sells a 5-pound bag of extra jumbo, U-15 size tiger shrimp for $60 a bag. Chilean black mussel meat is $10 per pound. Wild-caught U.S. catfish sells for $6 per pound and orange roughy, a deep-sea perch caught in the waters off New Zealand goes for $12 per pound.
When Ekelman has no customers, he sits in the cab of the van with his makeshift air conditioning unit and reads his Bible.
He’s especially proud of his lobster tails, which are nearly as big as his forearm. An 18–20-ounce tail goes for $36 or two for $68.
“Mother’s Day is crazy; I could fill this thing with lobster and it’s just gone,” Ekelman said. “Father’s Day? Well, we don’t get treated as well as the ladies do sometimes.”
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The crash occurred at 8:15 a.m. Wednesday in Welcome, Minnesota after the bus driver failed to yield to the truck, which had the right-of-way.
WELCOME, Minn. — Nine students were injured Wednesday morning when a truck crashed into a bus in southern Minnesota.
The crash occurred at 8:15 a.m. in Welcome, Minnesota after the bus driver failed to yield to the truck, which had the right-of-way at the intersection of County Road 7 and 280th Street, according to the Redwood County Sheriff’s Office. In a press release, officials say the nine students sustained “minor injuries” and were transported to a nearby hospital.
The initial investigation indicates that the truck, an F550, was traveling north on County Road 7, while the bus, which was providing service to the Wabasso Public School District, was traveling east on 280th Street. The news release says the truck had the right-of-way at the intersection.
“We are grateful that no serious injuries happened to our students, the driver or the other driver, however, nine students were transported to area hospitals for follow-up treatment,” Superintendent Jon Fulton said in a letter to parents. “… The District and 4.0 bus transportation company is praying for a speedy recovery for the students and families involved.”
Several fans said this team has inspired them to pursue a career in sports.
MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Lynx is inspiring the next generation of athletes regardless of whether they win or lose.
Sophia Witkowski went to the game with her mother, Christy, to watch Game 3 of the WNBA Finals.
“For her to see all her idols it’s just so fun,” Christy said.
“I like it because women’s sports aren’t that popular. Now the WNBA is really popular,” Sophia said.
They weren’t the only mother-and-daughter duo at the game. Amanda Williams took her 10-year-old daughter Abby to watch.
“It’s really awesome to have my daughter here to see great role models from the team and the fact,” Amanda said.
“I think that it’s super cool that they get to do what they want to do, and they get paid for it too,” Abby said.
Maggie Niska with Her Next Play, a nonprofit working to empower the next generation of female leaders through sports, said their visibility is everything.
“I think it gives these girls someone to look up to, and it gives them something to aspire to, and by having them in the community it makes seem a little more reachable too,” Niska said.
She said the Lynx Academy put on a basketball clinic for some of her girls in Hopkins Tuesday night. Niska said all of the professional women’s sports teams in Minnesota show girls they can have a future in sports.
“I just think that any visibility these girls can get to women competing at sports at a higher level, hearing these women speak, and seeing them succeed, and getting insight into their lives and what they do to compete at this higher level, I think all of that serves as a great inspiration to these girls,” she said.
It’s something Lynx Head Coach Cheryl Reeve understands well.
“For young girls to see the opportunities for them to play in any sport and then also more in sport, jobs in sports that sports can be a career,” Reeve said.
Sophia Ritter and Taylor Tool drove hours to see the players in action.
“We traveled from Aberdeen, South Dakota and the Northern State women’s basketball team took two vans,” she said.
Ritter and Tool both said it was a cool opportunity for them to see two great teams play on the professional level.
“Growing up, WNBA wasn’t really a big a thing and something that everyone was watching and now that it’s growing it’s really nice to see,” Ritter said.
“It’s really fun seeing all the support and seeing how many people come to watch the games like it’s really cool to see all the fans in the stands filling up and it’s growing,” Tool said.
Gophers’ Shoot Guard Mara Braun went to the game with her team after practice.
“These women out here are just amazingly talented and they play with this toughness that I think we’re really trying to embody as a team,” Braun said.
She knows young girls are looking up to her and her teammates just like they are with the Lynx.
“Especially growing up, you know, you want to play college basketball, and the next level is WNBA or overseas or whatever it is, so for me this is obviously a dream and something I’m working towards to be able to see it,” she said.
Braun dreams of playing in the WNBA and watching the Lynx and the Liberty in the finals makes that dream feel like it could be her new reality.
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