Minnesota Senate poised to move up cannabis timeline as GOP again targets beleaguered DFL lawmaker
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Business owners and advocates warned state lawmakers on Tuesday that Minnesota's recreational cannabis laws needs big updates if the state wants to start growing and selling marijuana flowers by 2025.
"The current rules we have right now are just not instilling the kind of confidence of us business owners," Mike Galic, owner of Natreum CBD Products, testified in a committee hearing. "There are some stores right now operating and selling flower already, and they're not supposed to be."
Dozens of proposed amendments to last year's landmark cannabis law hope to address those concerns. Among the proposed updates is to more quickly break the barriers between medical and recreational pot, plus give more power, sooner, to the newly created Office of Cannabis Management.
Committee members are also pitching issuing temporary licenses for growing and selling marijuana flowers.
"It is a critical step towards ensuring social equity applicants, that most adversely have been affected by other cannabis laws, are given a chance in this new industry by being the first to supply product," Leili Fatehi, with the MN Cannabis Resource Center, argued in her testimony.
The DFL-led Senate may be poised to approve the changes, but action on any legislation could hit speed bumps because of the controversy surrounding Sen. Nicole Mitchell, the DFL lawmaker from Woodbury charged with burglarizing her stepmother's house.
For the second time in two days, Mitchell was the deciding vote for the one-seat DFL majority in staving off GOP moves to limit her powers.
Sen. Karin Housley, R-Stillwater, brought forth the motion Tuesday, which called for "a formal request for the resignation" of Mitchell.
Mitchell was charged with burglary last week. After being found in the basement of her stepmother's home, dressed in all black, Mitchell told police she broke in to retrieve her father's ashes and other sentimental items, according to a criminal complaint.
In a subsequent statement, Mitchell denied the allegations and said she was at the home to check on a family member with Alzheimer's.
"It saddens me that some people are attempting to use a tragic family situation to score political points, and I am grateful to those who believe, as I always have, that everyone should be allowed the due process guaranteed by our Constitution," Mitchell said, in part. "I am confident that a much different picture will emerge when all of the facts are known."
