Minnesota’s new leisure hashish legislation goes into impact on Aug. 1, although most of the particulars and a few provisions will take months to roll out.
Efficient instantly, individuals age 21 and older can possess, use and develop hashish underneath sure situations with out breaking any Minnesota legal guidelines.
MPR Information host Angela Davis talked about what’s allowed, what’s not and what’s subsequent for hashish with Luke Hellier, the mayor of Lakeville, Minn., and Rep. Zack Stephenson, DFL-Coon Rapids, the chief sponsor of the Home invoice to legalize marijuana.
MPR Information host Angela Davis (left) talks with Lakeville mayor Luke Hellier and Rep. Zack Stephenson, DFL-Coon Rapids, about Minnesota’s new hashish legislation on Tuesday in an MPR Information studio in St. Paul.
Maja Beckstrom | MPR Information
What’s authorized
Marijuana possession and use
Rep. Stephenson: Beginning right this moment, individuals can have as much as two ounces of hashish on their particular person, wherever they’re, and as much as two kilos at residence.
Presents from people hold MPR Information accessible to all – freed from paywalls and obstacles.
In every single place within the state individuals have the power to smoke hashish in their very own residence, to apply it to non-public property, or at hashish occasions which are licensed and placed on by cities.
Rising hashish
Rep. Stephenson: The legislation says that Minnesotans can develop as much as eight vegetation, 4 of which will be flowering at any time. It’s essential that you simply hold your vegetation away from the place the general public can entry them. So, lots of people might be rising indoors. That’s nice. If you happen to’re rising outdoors you should do it in your yard or in a locked space.
The state legislation doesn’t say that it’s banned to develop inside condo buildings or condos. That will be as much as the administration of the constructing.
Shopping for from Pink Lake Nation
Rep. Stephenson: Pink Lake Nation is a sovereign nation they usually have management over what they do on their land. So whereas the state of Minnesota remains to be developing with the principles and laws on the market on Minnesota lands, the tribe determined to maneuver ahead with gross sales on their very own sovereign lands.
Possessing marijuana paraphernalia
Rep. Stephenson: It isn’t unlawful to have marijuana paraphernalia in Minnesota as of right this moment.
What’s not authorized
Smoking round youngsters
Rep. Stephenson: It’s unlawful to smoke or vape hashish wherever the place youngsters are going to inhale the smoke. So even when it’s your individual home, in the event you’ve bought youngsters round, you may’t smoke.
It’s additionally by no means authorized to make use of hashish in a faculty or wherever the place youngsters may inhale the smoke.
Individuals underneath 21 utilizing or possessing hashish
Rep. Stephenson: It was by no means the intent to legalize the usage of hashish for kids and anybody who appears on the legislation or reads the legislation can see that very clearly. It says in there in specific phrases, that for individuals underneath the age of 21, it’s unlawful for them to make use of or possess hashish. It’s a felony crime to promote or give hashish to anybody underneath the age of 21. We devoted vital assets to prevention and remedy of people who find themselves utilizing hashish underneath the age of 21.
Smoking in locations the place the Clear Indoor Air Act is enforced
Rep. Stephenson: There’s the Clear Indoor Air Act — that is the smoking ban that handed, you understand, 15 years in the past — that also in impact is unchanged by the legislation. Not simply tobacco. Anyplace the place the Clear Indoor Air Act applies, the place the smoking ban applies, you may’t smoke or vape hashish, as properly, beginning right this moment. In order that’s, you understand, bars, eating places, but in addition the frequent areas of buildings.
Smoking in multifamily buildings
Rep. Stephenson: There can’t be any smoking or vaporizing of hashish in multifamily buildings or condo buildings. It’s a flat ban on that. And it’s mainly the priority about secondhand smoke that you simply don’t need to be having the scent your neighbors are uncovered to your neighbor’s smoke.
There may be an exception to that rule for medical sufferers. So when you’ve got a prescription, you need to use your drugs at residence, even in the event you dwell in a multifamily unit.
Freely giving hashish with a purchase order
Rep. Stephenson: You can provide small quantities of hashish or the vegetation to different individuals. What you may’t do is give it as a form of add-on to another business buy. We’ve seen this in different states, the place the workaround to not having legalized hashish is: ‘Nicely, I’ll promote you this T-shirt for 50 bucks, let’s say, and also you additionally get a bit of little bit of hashish free of charge alongside that.’ You may’t try this.
Transporting hashish outdoors of Minnesota
Rep. Stephenson: Hashish remains to be unlawful on the federal degree, and what which means is you may’t transfer it throughout state traces. The sensible impression of that’s the entire hashish that will get offered, as soon as we now have a authorized and controlled market in Minnesota, should be grown right here in Minnesota, which is an actual financial growth alternative for individuals who need to begin small companies rising or promoting hashish.
Consuming marijuana with a federal license
Rep. Stephenson: In order that could possibly be a truck driver or somebody who flies an airplane. The federal legislation doesn’t enable for any consumption of hashish in any respect and you possibly can put your federal license in danger. So that you do should be cautious and train some private duty.
Utilizing hashish in your automotive
Rep. Stephenson: We now have an open container legislation for alcohol and we now have the same legislation for hashish, which implies that you should put it within the trunk or away from the motive force. It’s not okay to eat hashish ever in a automotive. Even in the event you’re the passenger, similar to you may’t drink beer whereas another person is driving the automotive, you may’t eat hashish whereas another person is driving the automotive.
What’s within the works
Metropolis ordinances
Rep. Stephenson: I all the time say Minnesota is a giant place; the legislature wasn’t going to determine for each sq. inch the place you possibly can smoke it. So we’re letting cities and counties make selections about areas that they management public parks, metropolis, sidewalks, issues like that. And we’re seeing cities across the state undertake guidelines round that, which is what we anticipated.
Mayor Luke Hellier: The [Lakeville] council determined that we actually need to do a few issues. One is to maneuver ahead and never enable smoking and vaping in parks and on sidewalks, you understand, public areas. And actually, Lakeville additionally didn’t have a ban on tobacco in our parks. So we’re really doing each. So now no smoking of any variety might be in parks as soon as we vote on Aug. 7. In order that’s type of the trail that we determined to go on and it actually comes from the truth that we had enterprise homeowners involved about what public consumption round their enterprise would imply.
Police enforcement and hashish coaching
Mayor Hellier: As a result of there’s not a take a look at like a breathalyzer to have the ability to decide if somebody is underneath the affect, we now have to actually depend on the coaching of our police and legislation enforcement companions. And so our police division will proceed to undergo that. They do some hashish studying now, however we’re gonna have to extend that. Most likely each greenback we get submit 2025 associated to the tax income will most likely go to coaching our cops for that kind of security. So I feel it’s gonna be a problem. I actually do. I don’t suppose that there’s one reply to how you establish if any person is underneath the affect whereas they’re driving. And so I feel the courts will most likely additionally take a look at over that.
Rep. Stephenson: We commit a major amount of cash from the tax on hashish in the direction of coaching legislation enforcement officers to change into what are referred to as “drug recognition specialists.” So people who find themselves on the facet of the highway and might search for clues from individuals’s reactions, possibly their eyes are bloodshot, and make an evaluation over whether or not somebody’s impaired. So this can be a downside that we all know how you can resolve within the legislation enforcement group and we are going to resolve it as a result of it’s unlawful to drive underneath the affect of hashish. And in the event you do it, you may be arrested and you may be charged with against the law.
Dispensaries, retail retailers to open statewide
Rep. Stephenson: There’s a giant course of that must be undertaken between doing these guidelines and laws that we talked about earlier to ensure that the hashish that’s offered is secure. And in addition, then there’s a dispensary licensing course of the place individuals have to use for a license and this state has to ensure that individuals meet the factors after which difficulty a license. So I might count on most likely an 18-month time interval between now and when these licenses are issued.
Subscribe to the MPR Information with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.
Use the audio participant above to take heed to the complete dialog.
