For the first time ever, a bill to legalize recreational marijuana will get a vote on the floor of the Minnesota House later this week. That bill is expected to pass with bipartisan support. In the Republican-controlled Senate, it’s not likely to get a chance at a vote. However, as Esme Murphy reports, even in conservative circles, the times are changing. Guthrie Theater To Reopen In July, With Shows Starting In October. The driving force towards legalization is rapidly shifting public opinion. A 2014 Star Tribune/MPR News poll found 30% of Minnesotans were for legalization, 63% were against. Six years later, just before the pandemic in February 2020, the same poll found the numbers flipped with 51% in favor and 37% against. Republican Rep. Nolan West represents Blaine. Asked how his constituents feel about the issue, he said, “overall, I would say they are definitely supportive. The majority of most people realize alcohol and tobacco are already legal and far more dangerous.” Democrats have extra incentive to pass legalization. Since 2019, two marijuana parties have had major party status. Those parties are widely believed to siphon more votes from Democrats than Republicans.
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Nearly a decade ago, Linda Greene was having dinner with some of her friends when she heard that marijuana had been legalized for medicinal use in Washington, D.C. Having lived through the 1960s counterculture, she saw an opportunity. Greene opened Anacostia Organics in 2019. The push to open the medicinal marijuana dispensary began after Greene saw that of the 15 original cultivator and dispensary licenses issued by the district’s Department of Health, none had been awarded to residents of the U.S. capital, and only two had been awarded to people of color. Anacostia Organics became the first medical marijuana dispensary east of the Anacostia River, located in a poverty-stricken area that was also home to the majority of the city’s patients registered to buy marijuana for medicinal purposes. Greene, who aims to uplift the community in which her dispensary is located, said the drug has been misunderstood. “This is not a stoner industry,” she told ABC News. “It’s been misconceived. ... It’s the industry of healing.” Greene is one of over 320,000 Americans who work in the cannabis industry. The drug, which has been legalized for recreational use in 17 states and Washington, D.C., accounted for $17.5 billion in sales in 2020. Yet, even as revenues from cannabis continue to grow across the country, the drug remains a federally prohibited Schedule 1 controlled substance -- in the same category as heroin, ecstasy and LSD. That may change, though. Ninety-one percent of Americans surveyed believed marijuana should be legalized, according to a Pew Research Center survey from last month. Of those participants, 60% said it should be legalized both recreationally and medicinally. Only 8% said it should not be legal for any adult use. The survey was conducted amid a heightened push by lawmakers to decriminalize the drug at the federal level and provide restorative justice to those who’ve been incarcerated for certain marijuana offenses. The House recently passed the SAFE Banking Act of 2019, which would make it easier for cannabis companies to operate in states where sales of the drug are legal.
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May 23, 2021
USDA approves Minnesota hemp production plan
Nearly five years after launching a pilot program, Minnesota’s hemp industry is taking root. A plan to govern the production and regulation of hemp in the state received USDA approval on Monday. "I think that the USDA approval is a win for the Department of Agriculture in that we have these clear regulations and requirements that we are going to implement," said Whitney Place, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture Assistant Commissioner. Banned in the U.S. for decades by the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act, hemp production was revived by the 2018 Farm bill. From clothing to food to CBD oil, the plant is used to make a variety of products. At one time, it was the fastest growing crop in U.S. agriculture. "We really see hemp as this really great opportunity for lots of farmers to be able to get in to," said Place. Industrial hemp and marijuana are both types of the same plant, but there's a difference. "So that’s how industrial hemp is defined, as separate from cannabis and marijuana is that it’s under 0.3% THC," said Place. Since it is a highly regulated crop, a license is required from the state to grow, process, research or breed hemp. This year the MSA received 454 applications for licenses. In 2020 there were 542 applicants -- a record. "Our next step in the process will be to write our state rules for the industrial hemp program," said Place. The federal government approved the state's original plan last summer, but asked for a revised plan. Some changes in the new plan include random sampling of fields and remediation is now allowed if hemp plants exceed the THC threshold.
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Many of the nation’s medical marijuana holdouts are giving in as pot activists make inroads this year with conservative strongholds — and are poised to notch more wins in the coming weeks. Medical marijuana bills are advancing in the Republican-controlled legislatures of North Carolina, Alabama and Kansas for the first time. Efforts to expand limited medical programs in bedrock conservative states like Texas and Louisiana also appear close to passage. “Medical cannabis is where we see the most common ground between Democrats, Republicans and Independents,” said Heather Fazio, a pro-marijuana advocate in Texas, where lawmakers are considering a major expansion of the state’s strict medical pot program. Cannabis is already available to more than 230 million Americans for medical use and, according to an April survey by Pew Research, 91 percent of residents believe marijuana should be legal for that purpose. Even in states without a medical program like North Carolina and South Carolina, recent polls have shown support topping 70 percent. Many elected officials, however, have hesitated to follow suit. And even in a year when cannabis boosters saw big, broad wins on recreational legalization in places like New York and New Jersey, some states that have embraced full prohibition remain firmly planted. “Every state that does not already have a medical marijuana law had something introduced” this year, said Karen O’Keefe, director of state policies for pro-legalization group Marijuana Policy Project. “Most of them have died.”
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Due to a publishing error, a Mississippi cannabis legalization proposal to make smokable cannabis legal wherever cigarette smoking is allowed in the state has been delayed. This unusual cannabis initiative would have been one-of-a-kind, but now, the state has a chance to push forward with full legalization and offer more opportunity for a growing industry or go backwards and not legalize at all. Now, instead of the originally passed Initiative 65, which was approved last November by Mississippi voters, Initiative 77 would let state residents decide whether to fully legalize cannabis, including cultivation, possession, and use. If passed, Initiative 77 would add a 7 percent sales tax to cannabis products, so that the state would be able to benefit from the increased revenue that cannabis sales can bring. And, similar to what Initiative 65 would have done, smoking cannabis would become legal in all the areas in which smoking tobacco is legal.
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This week, the Democrat-controlled Minnesota House is expected to vote on a bill legalizing marijuana — and it is expected to pass. It’s a very different situation in the Republican-controlled Senate, where powerful leaders are in a position to kill the bill and make sure its doesn’t even come up for a vote. But Republicans are beginning to move on this issue. Some point to the conservative state of South Dakota, where voters have voted for legalization. And at the legislature, some House Republicans are indicating their support. House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler has led the push for legalization. He was a guest on WCCO Sunday Morning. “We’ve been all over this state and I have seen Republicans, Independents, Democrats express support,” Winkler said. “This is not a partisan issue.” Democrats have a particular incentive to vote for legalization. There are now two political parties in the state devoted to making pot legal, and in the 2020 legislative elections it’s widely believed that Marijuana party candidates siphoned votes away from Democrats — allowing Republicans to retain control in the Minnesota Senate and pick up more seats in the House.
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The rally at the state capitol on April 20, the unofficial holiday for pot aficionados, brought out green-wigged supporters ringed in wisps of smoke. These days, they are far from the only people advocating for the legalization of marijuana. Black Lives Matter activists, who are seeking business opportunities for minority communities and say they have been hit hard by drug laws, joined the Hartford rally, as did labor organizers who want to see the industry unionized. More broadly, cannabis companies, banks and new marijuana trade organizations are deploying platoons of lobbyists to state capitals and Washington, D.C., to help shape the ground rules for the industry as more states legalize use, and as Congress weighs measures that could further legitimize the market. A decade ago, a handful of pro-pot companies and interest groups spent less than a half-million dollars on federal lobbying. By 2019, there were dozens of supporters, and they spent more than $8 million to hire about 130 registered lobbyists, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of public lobbying disclosures. Federal lobbying on cannabis declined last year amid the coronavirus pandemic and presidential election, but this year’s first-quarter reports show spending is rebounding. Banks including Morgan Stanley, as well as tobacco and alcohol companies, are beginning to weigh in on federal cannabis policy, according to lobbying records.
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The lesson we have learned all too well from the COVID-19 pandemic is to “follow the science” when formulating health policy. Yet, science is unfortunately taking a back seat as state houses across the country hastily approve marijuana legalization laws. Last month, for example, legalization in New York State coincided with the publication of a new study by the National Institute on Drug Addiction (NIDA) showing that, among teenagers, cannabis can be nearly as addictive as prescription opioids — a finding that failed to compel Albany lawmakers to strengthen safeguards. As more and more states line up to legalize, a closer look at the New York law reveals how legalization is weighted in favor of the increasingly powerful cannabis industry — rather than protecting vulnerable populations, including young people. While the law does focus on such worthy goals as marijuana decriminalization and achieving social equity and criminal-justice reform — in addition to helping communities disproportionately harmed by the failed War on Drugs — it is weak on regulating the soon-to-boom marijuana market.
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After narrowly failing to pass a wider-ranging medical cannabis decriminalization bill, advocates for the legislation struck an agreement with opponents in the Tennessee legislature for a watered down version. The bill flew through six specially called House committees and a Senate committee Tuesday, one of the final days of the legislative session, after members from both chambers who were for and against an earlier measure reached a deal. It narrowly passed the Senate on a vote of 20-12, with some members who voted against arguing the legislation did not go far enough. Others remained strictly opposed to any form of marijuana legalization. In the House, the bill passed much easier on Wednesday, 74-17.
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May 1, 2021
As more states legalize marijuana, people with drug convictions want their records cleared
Michael has struggled with kidney disease since he was in his early 20s serving in the military. The high stress of the job ultimately put him in the hospital, and he was not able to return to the service due to his condition. The 37-year-old Virginia Beach resident, who requested his name be changed because of concerns about retaliation from future employers, said that a nurse mentioned during that hospital stay that marijuana could help alleviate many of his symptoms, like nausea and vomiting. But at the time, the substance was not legal in Virginia. In order to pursue that treatment, Michael had a relative send him marijuana from a state where it was legal. But police tracked the package back to Michael, and he was arrested and charged with felony possession and intent to distribute in 2015. He was convicted and sentenced to three years of probation. At the time, Michael was working in an administrative role for a federal government contractor, and having two felonies on his record prevented him from advancing in his job.
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