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\u201cThat becomes a problem, because we\u2019re at the beginning of this industry and this market. Time and money are at a premium.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n By Brian Arola, MinnPost<\/strong><\/p>\n Whether it comes from courtrooms or the Capitol, Minnesota\u2019s cannabis laws look in need of clarification in response to wide interpretations by cities.<\/p>\n Local governments by law can cap<\/a> the number of cannabis retailers, place restrictions on where businesses are located and set hours of operation. Prohibition is a step too far.<\/p>\n Cities are using the law\u2019s language, or finding areas not addressed by the law, to achieve similar ends, however, raising questions that may end up being hashed out by judges or lawmakers.<\/p>\n One court case involving Albert Lea\u2019s denial of a cannabis retail license<\/a> is ongoing. A rejected applicant for a cultivation business in Silver Bay said he\u2019s considering his legal options.<\/p>\n In all, attorney Carol Moss knows of about 20 cities statewide on the \u201cnaughty list\u201d for ordinances she sees as contradicting state laws. A common one, said Moss, who monitors cannabis policies statewide at the Edina-based Hellmuth & Johnson law firm, involves buffers imposed between businesses and churches. The law<\/a> only carves out room for buffers from schools, day cares, residential treatment facilities and certain parks.<\/p>\n The state\u2019s Office of Cannabis Management offers guidance on the laws but has no legal authority to compel cities or counties into compliance. This leaves it up to individuals to challenge local ordinances in court.<\/p>\n Minnesota\u2019s Court of Appeals can weigh in on the legality of city ordinances, Moss said. The process can be lengthy and costly, pricing most people out of it.<\/p>\n \u201cThat becomes a problem, because we\u2019re at the beginning of this industry and this market,\u201d she said. \u201cTime and money are at a premium.\u201d<\/p>\n Costs have been a barrier preventing Greg Lien from appealing Silver Bay\u2019s rejection of his business application. Lien intended to open a cannabis cultivation business in the North Shore city until he got stonewalled earlier this year.<\/p>\n Silver Bay passed an ordinance in January stating it would not issue a registration or license to any retail or other cannabis business, citing a specific part of Minnesota law found under \u201cMinn. Stat. Sec. 342.13(i)\u201d to justify the ban. The section reads:<\/p>\n \u201cIf a county has one active registration for every 12,500 residents, a city or town within the county is not obligated to register a cannabis business.\u201d<\/p>\n Lake County, where Silver Bay is located, has only 10,855 residents. Because another city in the county, Two Harbors, passed an ordinance stating an intention to issue one cannabis business license, Silver Bay appears to have interpreted the law to mean the county satisfied the minimum.<\/p>\n Lana Fralich, city administrator in Silver Bay, declined to comment on the city\u2019s ordinance, citing pending litigation.<\/p>\n The \u201cactive registration\u201d wording in state law is notable here. Two Harbors, and Lake County, seemingly didn\u2019t have any active cannabis business registrations at the time Silver Bay passed the ordinance and denied Lien\u2019s application. Two Harbors ultimately didn\u2019t approve a cannabis retail license until August, meaning Lien may have been the county\u2019s first active registration if Silver Bay hadn\u2019t stopped him.<\/p>\n Another consideration is that the part of the law allowing limits on active registrations may not even be referring to cultivation businesses. Above the section setting a minimum number of active registrations per a county\u2019s population, the law refers to caps on retail registrations.<\/p>\n Lien believes the city ordinance is in direct conflict with the statute. He interprets the statute to be referring to retail rather than cultivation. Whatever the merits of his case, he hasn\u2019t yet figured out how to make a costly legal fight work.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m still trying to find an attorney that I can afford,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Albert Lea\u2019s city leaders initially characterized their denial of a cannabis retail license during a July public meeting as a stand against state law. Publicly stated reasons shifted afterward to a stance on how cities should have more leeway when considering applicants.<\/p>\n A lawsuit filed in the Minnesota Court of Appeals against Albert Lea in August alleges the city council denied Jacob Schlichter\u2019s application for \u201cpolitical reasons.\u201d His plans for Smoking Tree met all statutory criteria, the lawsuit states.<\/p>\n Albert Lea\u2019s response in court, dated Sept. 9, denied the council\u2019s actions were political. Denial stemmed from concerns for public safety and Schlichter\u2019s ability to operate in a lawful and respectful manner, according to the city.<\/p>\n Schlichter has a misdemeanor conviction involving a minor on his record from 2017, which City Manager Ian Rigg cited as a reason for the council not to reconsider its denial of Schlichter\u2019s application in August. The council\u2019s initial vote against the license, by a 4-3 margin, occurred in late July.<\/p>\n Mayor Rich Murray, in August<\/a>, characterized the denial as a way to protect residents, alleging the governor and Legislature failed to do so in the cannabis law.<\/p>\n \u201cApproving this registration remains objectionable by the city based on his refusal to follow lawful instructions,\u201d Murray stated in a press release. \u201cHis reaction to the denial was to harass people to the point they sought new restraining orders after a few years of silence. The applicant has publicly stated that he does not have to follow any of the local requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n Schlichter did not immediately return a call requesting comment.<\/p>\n If city leaders were concerned enough about Schlichter\u2019s past to question his application before the initial denial, no one voiced the sentiment on the record during the July meeting. At that meeting, the mayor bemoaned how the state \u201crammed\u201d cannabis legalization \u201cdown our throats.\u201d Council member Larry Baker explained how his vote was a way to say \u201cno\u201d to the Legislature, saying he was tired of control being taken away.<\/p>\n The city manager and city attorney, at the time, told the council it could open itself up to a lawsuit if it blocked the application. Their stance was the city\u2019s hands were tied after the applicant got the OK from the state.<\/p>\n These statements before the initial denial could be closely scrutinized in an appeals court, Moss said. She has experience appealing city decisions in appeals courts, where judges consider what reasoning and info a council or committee used when making decisions.<\/p>\n \u201cAll of that information is going to be used against them,\u201d she said. \u201c \u2026 The evidence he [Schlichter] will have at the court of appeals is pretty significant, that the city council was taking into consideration things that were improper.\u201d<\/p>\n Albert Lea ended up approving two other applicants based in New Mexico and Washington. As an aside, the Washington applicant, Cristina Aranguiz, had a role in halting Minnesota\u2019s social equity cannabis retail lottery in late 2024 by filing a lawsuit<\/a> alleging the process unfairly denied her application.<\/p>\n If the issues raised in Albert Lea and Silver Bay aren\u2019t resolved in the courts, legislation could refine the law to rein in the range of interpretations by cities. A spokesperson for Rep. Jessica Hanson, DFL-Burnsville, who co-authored the bill legalizing cannabis, stated that discussions on specific language updates are ongoing.<\/p>\n This article<\/a> first appeared on MinnPost<\/a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>. The post Minnesota Cities Test Limits Of How Much They Can Restrict Marijuana Businesses<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat becomes a problem, because we\u2019re at the beginning of this industry and this market. Time and money are at a premium.\u201d By Brian Arola, MinnPost Whether it comes from courtrooms or the Capitol, Minnesota\u2019s cannabis laws look in need of clarification in response to wide interpretations by cities. LocalContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":457,"featured_media":83486,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83485"}],"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\/457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83485"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83485\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83487,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83485\/revisions\/83487"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Timing is everything<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Latitude in the law<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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