SAINT PAUL – Retail sales for Minnesota’s legal recreational cannabis market will be tracked early next year. But some activists who tried to change the law and others looking to cash in on cannabis worry there won’t be enough supply to meet high demand unless government regulators allow early cultivation.
The process — from setting up a growing facility to planting seeds and ultimately stocking shelves for sale — can take up to a year, says Jason Tarasek, an attorney specializing in cannabis at Vicente LLP. Currently, businesses would have to get a state license to get off the ground and the Minnesota Office of Cannabis Management is in the process of drafting rules for implementation, which could take a while.
The fear of potential business owners is that waiting for that process to complete will delay market launch even further.
“I was worried we were going to fall behind a little bit,” Tarasek said. “So if we wait until the regulations are ready to get plants in the ground, that will probably be the first quarter of the second quarter of 2025. Then we might be looking at a market introduction in 2026.”
Rep. Nolan West, R-Blaine, tried to amend a bill Thursday night that brings about changes in the nascent industryy to allow the Cannabis Management Agency to establish temporary guidelines for cultivation based on existing medical cannabis rules. This legislation makes a permit possible pre-approval process, So some companies may get a head start on their plans before the rules are finalized, but it won’t go as far as getting seeds into the ground sooner.
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“What I see is that, as the situation stands now, we are facing a terrible launch,” West said during the floor debate.
His proposal was ultimately rejected by DFL lawmakers and the bill’s author, Rep. Zack Stephenson, although he agreed there is urgency to ensure regulations move smoothly and quickly.
He emphasized that the state cannabis agency has already started that process and warned that any temporary regulations could delay that process.
“I think having multiple sets of rules — the current medical rules, these temporary rules, the official rules — will create confusion and distract the office from getting the actual rules out the door as quickly as possible,” he told the legislators.
But Thursday’s vote is far from the end of the conversation about cannabis in the capital this year. The Minnesota Senate is advancing its own bill with updates to last year’s sweeping drug policy change to make cannabis legal for adults 21 and older.
Members of both chambers are likely to meet in a panel at the end of the session to reach a compromise.
Tarasek and others met with the Office of Cannabis Management to push leaders to reconsider and advocate for early cultivation, either by mirroring medical cannabis regulations or approving a pilot project that would give some companies the opportunity to to start soon.
“I am encouraged by what I am hearing now from OCM and the DFL,” Tarasek said. Maybe we’ll get plants in the ground sooner than we thought yesterday.”
Caroline Cummings
