Minnesota Democratic leaders are preparing for another push to legalize marijuana this session, with the sponsor of the House-passed reform bill saying he will be reworking the legislation in an effort to build further support\u2014though it continues to face an uphill climb in the GOP-controlled Senate.<\/p>\n
House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler (D) and Senate Minority Leader Melisa Franzen (D) discussed the legislative strategy during a roundtable event hosted by the Minnesota Hemp Growers Cooperative on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Winkler said that his bill, which moved through 12 committees before being approved on the House floor last year<\/a>, is the \u201cproduct of hundreds of hours of work involving thousands of people\u2019s input, countless hearings and public listening sessions\u2014but it is not a perfect bill.\u201d<\/p>\n Minnesota House Majority Leader @_RyanWinkler<\/a> recently presented this overview of his legislative strategy on adult use cannabis and hemp. #LegalizeMN<\/a> #mnleg<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/Z32GLSwQhS<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 RAMP Minnesota (@ramp_mn) January 21, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n \u201cAs we look ahead to this session\u2026our goal is to go back and reexamine provisions of the bill,\u201d he said. Licensing structures, public safety and substance misuse concerns are among the issues that lawmakers will be looking at to improve upon the legislation.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will be working with our colleagues in the Minnesota Senate,\u201d Winkler added. \u201cWe\u2019re interested in pursuing legalization to make sure that the bill represents senators\u2019 priorities for legalization as well.\u201d<\/p>\n The leader said that \u201cany effort this year that would be successful would require Republican support as well.\u201d<\/p>\n But while advocates are encouraged to hear that the House may again vote to pass the legalization legislation, the Senate minority leader tempered expectations about the bill\u2019s prospects in her Republican-run chamber.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a path to legalization this year in the Minnesota Senate,\u201d Franzen said. \u201cIt\u2019s controlled by the Republican party, and they have there\u2019s a few members who are really adamantly opposed to legalization.\u201d<\/p>\n Gov. Tim Walz (D) is supportive of cannabis legalization, and while the broad reform didn\u2019t advance last session, he did sign a bill to\u00a0expand the state\u2019s medical marijuana program<\/a>, in part by allowing patients to access smokable cannabis products.<\/p>\n Winkler said on Wednesday that \u201cit was because of the work done\u201d by advocates on legalization that put pressure on Senate Republicans to advance that legislation.<\/p>\n Another cannabis issue playing out in Minnesota concerns CBD. The state agriculture department and pharmacy board have increased enforcement against the sale of the non-intoxicating cannabinoid in recent months, prompting calls for legislative reform.<\/p>\n Winkler said that the political dynamics around legalization that led to the expansion of the state\u2019s medical cannabis program will be \u201ca template for how we will address challenges with CBD this year.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy staff is working very closely with advocates, working with senators, working with other House members to get in a repair for the CBD industry, and I have every confidence that we will be able to do that with your help,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n A poll conducted by Minnesota lawmakers that was released last year found that 58 percent of residents are in favor of legalization<\/a>. That\u2019s a modest increase\u00a0compared to the chamber\u2019s 2019 survey<\/a>, which showed 56 percent support.<\/p>\n Winkler said in 2020 that if Senate Republicans don\u2019t go along with the policy change legislatively, he hopes they will at least let voters decide on cannabis<\/a>\u00a0as a 2022 ballot measure.<\/p>\n Rhode Island Governor Includes Marijuana Legalization And Expungements In Budget Request<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan<\/a>.<\/p>\n The post Minnesota Democratic Leaders Preview Marijuana Legalization Plan For 2022<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Minnesota Democratic leaders are preparing for another push to legalize marijuana this session, with the sponsor of the House-passed reform bill saying he will be reworking the legislation in an effort to build further support\u2014though it continues to face an uphill climb in the GOP-controlled Senate. House Majority Leader RyanContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81,126],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52454"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52454"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52455,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52454\/revisions\/52455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Minnesota Democratic Leaders Preview Marijuana Legalization Plan For 2022<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"