Earlier this month Minnesota House voted 72-61 to legalize cannabis for adult use. Unfortunately, there’s no future from here with the bill.

Minnesota is unlikely to make the plant legal because majority Republicans in the state Senate will likely prevent it from becoming law this year.

Under the bill, Minnesotans 21 and older would be allowed to possess up to 2 ounces of cannabis in public and up to 10 pounds in their personal residence. The bill also creates a regulatory and tax framework for the plant.

A new Cannabis Management Board would oversee the regulation and also take charge of the state’s existing medical cannabis program. Excess tax revenue from adult-use cannabis would be directed into a tax relief account.

The DFL-controlled House held 12 hearings on the legalization bill while the Republican Senate held none. The Senate additionally had no plans to take it up before the session ended.

House Speaker Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, said the bill addresses two of the DFL’s key priorities: racial equity and criminal justice reform.

“Criminalizing a product that most people think should be available, and continuing our legacy of racial injustice, is simply not defensible anymore,” Hortman said.

The prohibition of cannabis does not work, explained House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler, DFL-Golden Valley, the bill’s author.

“We have this bill before us today because Minnesotans have decided that it is time to legalize cannabis and right the wrongs of the criminal prohibition of cannabis that has failed Minnesota,” Winkler said. “It has failed Minnesotans, and it’s time for it to change.”

Most Minnesota Republicans oppose legislation however.

Rep. Anne Neu Brindley, R-North Branch, said, “We should be sitting here discussing budget bills,” she said. “Instead, we are sitting here discussing marijuana.”

 


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