Legal, medical cannabis fix-it legislation in the works at Minnesota Legislature
Go Deeper.
Create an account or log in to save stories.
Like this?
Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.
Several bills are making their way through the state Capitol to tweak legal cannabis rules as the Minnesota retail market is poised to launch — and bills must clear at least one committee by Friday to remain in play this session.
Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, is sponsoring several of those cleanup bills for both recreational cannabis and changes to medical marijuana rules. He joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer ahead of committee hearings Thursday to talk about what the proposed alterations entail.
The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
Patient applications for the medical cannabis registry are high. On the enrollment portal’s website, the Office of Cannabis Management said there will be a longer wait time than typical.
Turn Up Your Support
MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all.
“With the current volume being processed it will likely take close to the statutorily allowed 30 days for us to reach your application,” the site disclaimer reads.
Dibble’s bill aims to increase access to medical marijuana for patients.
Might your proposed changes exacerbate the situation?
“The goal, of course, is to keep the medical side of access to cannabis very strong in Minnesota. The experience in other states where adult use has been made legal is that the medical side tends to fall off quite a bit for a variety of reasons,” Dibble said. “So this bill aligns access to medical on the retail side that will be occurring on reservations with the existing medical opportunities that folks have, which are quite limited.”
When Minnesota first legalized medical cannabis in 2014, just two companies were allowed to grow, sell and operate eight medical dispensaries each for the entire state. The conditions for which patients could get the drug were limited to about 10, including cancer and ALS.
“I think it's encouraging that we have a lot of folks who are still seeking out those kinds of things that help treat conditions for different symptoms and syndromes that they suffer,” Dibble said.
Your bill allows patient caregivers to grow plants?
“Those are existing changes in the medical program, and this aligns with how the medical program would operate with Native-owned businesses on reservations,” Dibble said. “These are all good steps that we've taken the last number of years to provide more ease of access, lower cost, more convenience, those sorts of things.”
The proposed legislation would allow a registered designated caregiver to grow up to eight cannabis plants for a single-patient household. They may also cultivate another eight plants for their personal use.
Are you confident your cannabis bills will pass this session?
Dibble says he’s “reasonably confident.”
“I happen to be carrying a lot of this cleanup [legislation] and technical fixes to the adult use side," he said. “I was talked into it because I was very, very interested in making sure that we were protecting medical cannabis in Minnesota. And somehow all the other bills then came into you know my chief authorship, so apparently I'm the cannabis guy.”
Dibble is additionally sponsoring cannabis bills about government and tribal relationships, license requirements, social equity applicants and medical cannabis combination businesses.