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The governor of Minnesota says that Republican lawmakers are spreading \u201cmisinformation\u201d about the state\u2019s newly enacted marijuana legalization law\u2014and while he believes the policy will continue to be tweaked over time, he will not be convening an urgent special session as GOP members have requested.<\/p>\n
During a press briefing on Tuesday, Gov. Tim Walz (D) was asked about concerns with the cannabis law that Republicans have laid out in a pair of letters<\/a> that they sent to him and Democratic leadership over the last couple weeks. Specifically, the lawmakers have focused on rules for underage possession of marijuana.<\/p>\n \u201cMy feelings are really strong about this. First of all, the folks putting out misinformation concerning the cannabis bill just need to stop this,\u201d the governor said. \u201cCannabis was not legal for minors before the law change. It\u2019s not legal now.\u201d<\/p>\n Watch the governor discuss the marijuana legalization law, starting at 27:09 into the video below:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n As one reporter pointed out, it was the intent of the sponsors to remove criminal penalties for youth possession, but the violation itself remained on the books, so people under 21 could theoretically be charged with a default petty misdemeanor if they unlawfully have marijuana.<\/p>\n Walz said \u201cit didn\u2019t get into the law, and it\u2019s not the one we signed, so the intent of the authors will always be there, [but] the interpretation and the the operationalizing this will be with our agencies, and there is no intention of of taking that away from minors. It\u2019s simply illegal.\u201d<\/p>\n He also emphasized that, like the state\u2019s century-plus-old alcohol laws, the cannabis program will likely continue to be tweaked over time.<\/p>\n \u201cLike any piece of legislation, will there be things that will be changed? My god, we\u2019re changing the alcohol laws 120 years after the fact,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re still debating on upgrading and modernizing on that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo the fact of the matter is, this idea of putting out false information\u2014you can certainly debate the merits, we can certainly come back and take a look at this\u2014but this was a thoughtful piece of legislation,\u201d Walz said. \u201cIt is not legal for minors to use cannabis in the state of Minnesota. It wasn\u2019t then, it isn\u2019t now and it won\u2019t be in the future. It\u2019s as simple as that.\u201d<\/p>\n The governor was also asked about public cannabis consumption rules, which is another area of concern flagged by Republicans in a letter late last month<\/a>.<\/p>\n He responded that the law makes it so \u201cindividual and local jurisdictions could make decisions\u201d to ban publicly smoking marijuana, just like open containers of alcohol on the streets are prohibited. The state law itself doesn\u2019t prevent people from consuming in public spaces, however.<\/p>\n He again reiterated that he \u201cabsolutely\u201d believes the marijuana law will be revised by the legislature, which he said is \u201cthe right way to approach this.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think that you should have an expectation there\u2019ll be tweaks. Every other state that\u2019s done that has gone through those same permutations,\u201d he said. \u201cThe fact remains this is, prohibition did not work. It was punishing groups, specifically racially punishing certain groups. We were not seeing any decline in the usage of this.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe bottom line on this is, those that are screaming or making up false information simply had no plan to address any of these issues,\u201d Walz said.<\/p>\n \u2014 Minnesota\u2019s marijuana legalization law took effect last week<\/a>, making it so adults 21 and older can possess and cultivate cannabis. And the\u00a0first tribally owned marijuana shops also opened<\/a>\u00a0ahead of traditional licensees.<\/p>\n State-licensed retailers aren\u2019t expected to come online until 2024 at earliest. Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura said last week that he wants to get in on the action, too, and become the \u201cfirst major politician in America\u201d to have his face on a marijuana brand<\/a>.<\/p>\n The law also formally created the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM), which launched last month. It will be the primary regulatory body that will oversee the market and for which the governor is\u00a0actively seeking an executive director<\/a>.<\/p>\n Another body that has been instituted is the Cannabis Expungement Board, which will\u00a0facilitate record sealing for people with eligible marijuana convictions<\/a>\u00a0on their records. The review process for eligible cases commenced last week.<\/p>\n Even before Walz signed the reform bill, the state\u00a0launched a website that serves as a hub for information<\/a>\u00a0about the new law. Officials have also already started soliciting vendors\u00a0to help build a licensing system<\/a>\u00a0for recreational marijuana businesses.<\/p>\n A separate\u00a0Minnesota law also took effect last week that legalizes drug paraphernalia possession<\/a>, syringe services, controlled substances residue and testing.<\/p>\n Also, a\u00a0Minnesota government psychedelics task force is being built out<\/a>\u00a0to prepare the state for the possible legalization of substances like psilocybin and ibogaine. But even though appointments to the panel are behind schedule and it missed a deadline to hold its first meeting by August 1, the lawmaker who championed its creation says he isn\u2019t worried about the delays.<\/p>\n SXSW Opens Voting On More Than 100 Marijuana And Psychedelics Panels For 2024 Festival<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Minnesota Governor Tells Republicans To Stop Spreading \u2018Misinformation\u2019 About Marijuana Legalization Law<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The governor of Minnesota says that Republican lawmakers are spreading \u201cmisinformation\u201d about the state\u2019s newly enacted marijuana legalization law\u2014and while he believes the policy will continue to be tweaked over time, he will not be convening an urgent special session as GOP members have requested. During a press briefing onContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":67545,"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\/67544"}],"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=67544"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67546,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67544\/revisions\/67546"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Minnesota Governor Tells Republicans To Stop Spreading \u2018Misinformation\u2019 About Marijuana Legalization Law<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"