Minnesota’s House of Representatives distributed a survey at the State Fair this year that asked participants about the idea of localities being able to ban marijuana businesses in their own borders. Most people who had an opinion about the matter agreed with it, despite the fact that this policy does not yet form part of the cannabis laws in the state.
In the survey which covered a wide range of issues in policy, respondents were asked to answer: “Should municipalities and counties have the right to ban cannabis businesses from their communities?”
Minnesota will legalize adult-use cannabis in 2023. Regulators are working on implementing licensed sales. According to the legislation passed by Gov. Tim Walz (D) signed, local governments are barred from preventing cannabis businesses in their jurisdiction—but House lawmakers evidently wanted to gauge public opinion on that local control option.
The survey showed that a majority of people (47%) are for allowing local governments to decide whether or not they want marijuana businesses. However, 41 % said this is against their policy. A further 10 percent were indecisive or had no opinion.
The poll was attended by almost 10,000 participants.
Advocates for legal marijuana and regulatory agencies in states that have approved the drug warn against local restrictions in emerging markets. This could limit access to licensed sources, thereby compromising efforts to end illicit cannabis sales.
Minnesota law allows local governments the ability to restrict the number of marijuana retailers within their jurisdictions. However, it also requires that leaders allow at least 1 store per every 12 500 residents.
The House survey may encourage lawmakers to revisit current legislation, which has not yet been implemented.
Separate State Fair polls found that the majority of Minnesota lawmakers supported the legalization reform.
While the Governor has recently appointed an expert cannabis regulator to supervise the launch of the adult-use marijuana market, he also selected the top state official who would oversee this process. While some localities may favor a locally controlled option for licensees and retailers, more than a dozen Minnesotan cities are interested in government-run retail cannabis stores.
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Minnesota’s Office of Cannabis Management, or OCM for short, issued the first state-issued recreational marijuana cultivation license in June.
OCM stated at that time it was taking additional steps to grow the cannabis industry and provide opportunities for entrepreneurs. This included opening up a new window of licensing for cannabis testing centers, accepting applications for licenses for marijuana events, and verifying requests for more social equity status.
Separately, after Minnesota lawmakers passed a bill to end the criminalization of bong water containing trace amount of drugs, the governor signed the measure into law in May.
This change corrects an old policy which allowed the law to consider bong water in quantities greater than 4 ounces to be equivalent to pure uncut versions of the drugs consumed with the device.
In Minnesota, an Indian tribe opened this past month the first ever legal recreational marijuana outlet outside of reservations. A second location was opened in St. Cloud after the shop in Moorhead. Cloud is operated by White Earth Nation.
The launch of the shop comes after Walz signed of a landmark agreement this year to allow the tribe to operate up to eight retail marijuana stores across the state.
Minnesota’s 2023 cannabis legalization law allows tribes within the state to open marijuana businesses before state licensing of businesses begins. Following the law’s enactment, a number of tribal governments, including White Earth Nation, the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians and the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, made early moves to enter the market.
In April, meanwhile, state officials moved to delay a separate drug reform—the opening of safe drug consumption sites, meant to allow people to use drugs in a safer, supervised setting.
At the time, a representative of the Department of Human Services Behavioral Health Administration (DHS), said that more work needed to be done at a federal as well as state level in order for these services to be safe for program participants.
In March, lawmakers also filed legislation that would create a system to allow legal access to psilocybin for medical purposes. That came just days after the introduction of a separate bill that would legalize personal psilocybin use and possession among adults.
Martin Alonso is the photographer.
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