Star Tribune
Minnesota’s new cannabis law still a year away from full implementation
Unexpected roadblocks have hampered the implementation of Minnesota’s new recreational marijuana law, and state officials expect it will take at least another year of work before all of its provisions take effect.
Nearly eight months after Gov. Tim Walz signed the marijuana bill into law, state officials are still searching for a director to lead the Office of Cannabis Management. The first hire resigned last year and a rumored replacement left state government; a director likely won’t be in place until mid-February at the earliest.
On top of that, “technical and programmatic changes” have postponed the promised automatic expungement of all marijuana-related petty misdemeanor and misdemeanor convictions in Minnesota. Those expungements aren’t expected until August.
The Cannabis Expungement Board, which will consider the expungement of gross misdemeanor and felony convictions, currently has two openings yet to be filled by Walz.
Meanwhile, state officials have been vague about exactly when retail sales of recreational cannabis will begin, but predict it will be sometime early next year. Preliminary cannabis industry rules are expected to be published at the end of the year, followed by a 30-day public comment period. Rules are expected to be adopted in spring 2025.
Walz last fall appointed business consultant Erin DuPree to oversee the cannabis office, but she resigned the next day when the Star Tribune reported that her business sold hemp edibles that did not comply with state limits on THC, the psychoactive ingredient in hemp and marijuana that intoxicates users.
The governor has stated he wants the next appointee to have regulatory experience. The office has been led by state government veteran Charlene Briner on an interim basis, but her contract expires Feb. 15. The state has not reopened the application process for the job, and Walz spokeswoman Claire Lancaster declined to say when a director might be hired.
Much of the slow-churn path to legalization isn’t at odds with what state policymakers predicted last year when legalization was making its way through the Legislature, said Kurtis Hanna, a lobbyist with the cannabis consulting firm Blunt Strategies.
State governments typically implement marijuana expungement laws slowly because they’re not a top priority, said Frances Trousdale, a policy associate with Last Prisoner Project, a Denver-based marijuana reform group,
“Unfortunately, it’s a pretty standard tale of a decent bill that never gets implemented,” Trousdale said. “We see a lot of it.”
In its scorecard of states with the best marijuana expungement laws, the Last Prisoner Project recently ranked Minnesota at the top of the list with California, because Minnesota’s law takes into consideration felony-level marijuana convictions for expungement.
But the report also notes that expungements for higher-level marijuana convictions in Minnesota “require arduous reviews by a specially appointed board.”
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which is in charge of the automatic expungements, says on its website that the “overall technical infrastructure needs” of carrying it out are delaying the process.
“They claim it’s software-related, which is frustrating as hell,” Hanna said.
The BCA website says that more than a dozen staffers and contractors are analyzing how to identify previous marijuana records, which of the records are eligible for expungement and how to disseminate information to people with convictions. A BCA spokesperson declined to comment on the process.
The Office of Cannabis Management is tasked with organizing and regulating the state’s new marijuana industry, but it needs to draft regulations before a marijuana dispensary can sell to customers. That includes everything from applications for marijuana business licenses to rules on how the products are packaged and labeled.
The cannabis office is collecting public input via online surveys through late February on the rulemaking process. The next surveys will focus on licensing and social equity considerations for businesses, laboratory standards for marijuana products and the medical cannabis and patient registry program. Links to those surveys will be posted at cannabis.mn.gov/rulemaking.html.
Merone Melekin, who works in outreach and engagement for the cannabis office, said she has held around 50 public meetings since stepping into her role last August and has received a lot of feedback about the equity promises in the legislation, including how the agency will measure candidates applying for business licenses to produce marijuana products or operate a dispensary.
Under the law, entrepreneurs applying for a marijuana business license may be considered social equity applicants if they live in low-income communities, have been previously convicted of a marijuana offense or are veterans who were discharged because of a marijuana offense, among other criteria. Those factors will add weight in determining whether an applicant receives a license.
Melekin said she’s also received feedback from people in underprivileged communities who want nothing to do with marijuana.
“Some communities want to talk more about the public health side,” she said.
About the partnership
This story comes to you from Sahan Journal, a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to covering Minnesota’s immigrants and communities of color. Sign up for a free newsletter to receive Sahan’s stories in your inbox.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation closed part of a state highway Wednesday evening near Austin because of a “major hazardous materials release” in the area.
Hwy. 56 from Hayfield to Waltham, a stretch covering about five miles, was closed in both directions and drivers were directed to follow a detour to Blooming Prairie on U.S. Hwy. 218.
No information on the hazardous materials released was immediately available.
A federal judge dismissed a civil lawsuit against Minnesota state trooper Ryan Londregan in the shooting death of Ricky Cobb II during a 2023 traffic stop.
The decision is the latest development in a case that has drawn heated debate over excessive use of force by law enforcement. Criminal charges against Londregan were dismissed by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty in June, saying the prosecution didn’t have the evidence to proceed with a case.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Nancy E. Brasel granted Londregan’s motion to dismiss the civil suit, arguing he acted reasonably when he opened fire as Cobb’s vehicle lurched forward with another state trooper partly inside.
Londregan’s attorney Chris Madelsaid Wednesday that it’s been a “long, grueling journey to justice. Ryan Londregan has finally arrived.”
On July 31, 2023, the two troopers pulled over Cobb, 33, on Interstate 94 in north Minneapolis for driving without taillights and later learned he was wanted for violating a felony domestic no-contact order. Cobb refused commands to exit the car.
With Seide partly inside the car while trying to unbuckle Cobb’s seatbelt, the car moved forward. Londregan then opened fire, hitting Cobb twice.
In her decision, Brasel said the troopers were mandated by state law to make an arrest given Cobb’s domestic no-contact order violation. She said it was objectively reasonable for Londregan to believe Seide was in immediate danger as the car moved forward on a busy highway, which would make his use of force reasonable.
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Donald Trump walked down the steps of the Boeing 757 that bears his name, walked across a rain-soaked tarmac and, after twice missing the handle, climbed into the passenger seat of a white garbage truck that also carried his name.
The former president, once a reality TV star known for his showmanship, wanted to draw attention to a remark made a day earlier by his successor, Democratic President Joe Biden, that suggested Trump’s supporters were garbage. Trump has used the remark as a cudgel against his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.
”How do you like my garbage truck?” Trump said, wearing an orange and yellow safety vest over his white dress shirt and red tie. ”This is in honor of Kamala and Joe Biden.”
Trump and other Republicans were facing pushback of their own for comments by a comedian at a weekend Trump rally who disparaged Puerto Rico as a ”floating island of garbage.” Trump then seized on a comment Biden made on a late Wednesday call that “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”
The president tried to clarify the comment afterward, saying he had intended to say Trump’s demonization of Latinos was unconscionable. But it was too late.
On Thursday, after arriving in Green Bay, Wisconsin, for an evening rally, Trump climbed into the garbage truck, carrying on a brief discussion with reporters while looking out the window — similar to what he did earlier this month during a photo opportunity he staged at a Pennsylvania McDonalds.
He again tried to distance himself from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, whose joke had set off the firestorm, but Trump did not denounce it. He also said he did not need to apologize to Puerto Ricans.
”I don’t know anything about the comedian,” Trump said. ”I don’t know who he is. I’ve never seen him. I heard he made a statement, but it was a statement that he made. He’s a comedian, what can I tell you. I know nothing about him.”
