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The governor of Minnesota says he expects the state to legalize marijuana \u201cby May.\u201d But the House speaker is tempering those expectations, putting the timeline for reform in the range of sometime in the next two years.<\/p>\n
Gov. Tim Walz (D) has been especially bullish about legalization since winning reelection during the November election, which also saw the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party take a slim majority in the Senate while retaining its control of the House. He\u2019s previoulsy described the issue as a top priority<\/a> that he hopes to see advance in the legislature as \u201cone of the first items\u201d to reach his desk in the 2023 session.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d say that by May, Minnesota will have gotten this done,\u201d Walz told<\/a> Semafor\u2019s David Weigel a the new interview published on Friday. \u201cI did think it would pass sooner, because I thought it was more of a libertarian issue.\u201d<\/p>\n He also spoke about the impact of third-party candidates who pushed a marijuana-focused agenda<\/a> in past cycles\u2014which some believe was intended to divert Democratic votes. The governor said \u201cRepublicans abused that\u201d by putting in \u201cstalking horse candidates with that [marijuana] party label.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt cost us the Senate in 2020, and it nearly cost us this time. But I think we\u2019ll pass it. We\u2019ve been very deliberate about this,\u201d Walz, who included funding for legalization implementation<\/a> in his budget proposal this year, said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe brought in folks from Colorado and Vermont, early in our administration. We asked: What would the regulatory regime look like? What would the revenue piece look like? What would the enforcement pieces look like? What about expungement of convictions? We put that into place, we\u2019ve worked for four years to try and get it passed, and the senate Republicans wouldn\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that the \u201cactual people advocating for legal marijuana were good about it this year,\u201d by urging people to avoid marijuana party candidates and \u201cvote for the Democrats because they want to get this done.\u201d<\/p>\n While Walz is confident that lawmakers will be able to expedite reform in the upcoming legislative session\u2014and Democrats have internally agreed to discuss the issue<\/a> in short order\u2014House Speaker Melissa Hortman (D) said recently that this \u201cisn\u2019t something I would see in the near term.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt may well happen in the next two-year period,\u201d the speaker, who led a bipartisan legalization effort that passed the House but stalled in the Senate during the last session, told<\/a> Fox 9. \u201cBut we have a lot of things we\u2019re going to be focusing on early and fast.\u201d<\/p>\n State Sen. Sen. Nick Frentz (D), an assistant leader in the new DFL Senate majority, said that he believes legalization \u201cwill pass this session,\u201d though he agrees with the speaker that \u201cthere\u2019s a question of timing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOur caucus has not had this discussion at any length,\u201d Frentz said. \u201cI would guess there are some members who have some hesitation.\u201d<\/p>\n Republicans also expect to see Democrats move on cannabis reform in the next session, but it remains to be seen how much of an obstacle they may pose in the minority. Cannabis legalization has passed the House under Democratic leadership, though the reform has been consistently blocked in the Senate, which until now has been controlled by the GOP.<\/p>\n \u201cI do know there is a strong desire to see it done by the DFL,\u201d Sen. Zach Duckworth (R) said. \u201cThey\u2019ve got the ability to do it. I would be very surprised if they did not pursue it.\u201d<\/p>\n The House\u00a0passed a legalization bill from House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler (D)<\/a>\u00a0last year, after it moved through 12 committees on its intensive legislative journey to the floor. It then stalled out in the GOP-controlled Senate. An\u00a0earlier bipartisan legalization proposal<\/a> led by Sens. Scott Jensen (R) and Lopez Franzen in 2019 also did not advance.<\/p>\n Franzen also\u00a0tried to leverage a legislative procedure<\/a>\u00a0earlier this year to bypass the committee process and quickly bring legalization to the floor, but the motion did not receive the required supermajority support to work.<\/p>\n The MNisReady Coalition, meanwhile, is eager to see the issue advance in 2023. The coalition\u00a0launched a voter education resource<\/a>\u00a0in August in the hopes of activating more voters to make their voices heard and support candidates who back cannabis legalization\u2014an effort that seems to have paid off.<\/p>\n Two polls released in September found that the majority of Minnesota residents\u00a0support adult-use marijuana legalization<\/a>\u2014and one survey showed that even more Minnesotans approve of the state\u2019s move to legalize THC-infused edibles that was enacted earlier this year.<\/p>\n A\u00a0survey conducted by officials with the House<\/a>\u00a0at the annual State Fair that was released in September also found majority support for legalization. That legislature-run poll found that 61 percent of Minnesotans back legalizing cannabis for adult use.<\/p>\n Support was up this year from 58 percent when the House Public Information Services\u00a0polled fair goers on the issue last year<\/a>. In 2019,\u00a0the House poll found 56 percent<\/a>\u00a0support for legalization.<\/p>\n The governor also\u00a0signed a bill over the summer<\/a>\u00a0that included provisions to provide permanent protections allowing state\u00a0hemp businesses to legally market certain cannabis products<\/a>\u2014including foods and beverages infused with CBD and other cannabinoids.<\/p>\n \u2014 Back in January, Winkler and L\u00f3pez Franzen\u00a0discussed their plans to advance the cannabis reform<\/a>\u00a0this session.<\/p>\n Winkler said at the time that his bill was\u00a0the \u201cproduct of hundreds of hours of work involving thousands of people\u2019s input, countless hearings and public listening sessions.\u201d<\/p>\n Previously, in 2019, the governor\u00a0directed state agencies to prepare to implement reform<\/a>\u00a0in anticipation of legalization eventually passing.<\/p>\n While legalization wasn\u2019t ultimately enacted following the House\u2019s passage of the bill last year, the governor 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 The House majority leader said in 2020 that if Senate Republicans don\u2019t go along with the policy change legislatively, he hoped they will\u00a0at least let voters decide on cannabis<\/a>\u00a0as a 2022 ballot measure, but that didn\u2019t materialize.<\/p>\n States With Legal Marijuana Have Less Underage Use And Impaired Driving Than Criminalized States, Study Shows<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Minnesota Governor Predicts State Will Legalize Marijuana \u2018By May\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The governor of Minnesota says he expects the state to legalize marijuana \u201cby May.\u201d But the House speaker is tempering those expectations, putting the timeline for reform in the range of sometime in the next two years. Gov. Tim Walz (D) has been especially bullish about legalization since winning reelectionContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":59576,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59575"}],"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=59575"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59577,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59575\/revisions\/59577"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Minnesota Governor Predicts State Will Legalize Marijuana \u2018By May\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"