Rep. Zach Stephenson and Sen. Lindsey Port said they don’t have a lot of big plans for introducing cannabis bills this session, other than pushing for the OCM’s recommended law changes. Do you think it’s going to be a relatively quiet session compared to last year?
Compared to last year, yes. That session was bonkers, not only on cannabis but on just about every other major public policy issue. Even before we passed the legalization bill, we all knew that there was going to be a cannabis cleanup bill this session. It appears that the OCM bill will be the main vehicle for that. I think most people support the vast majority of what OCM is recommending, so I’m grateful to hear that Sen. Port and Rep. Stephenson intend to push that forward.
Many of the recommended changes from the OCM involve speeding up the licensing process and giving social equity applicants a better head start. Do you think these will get done this session?
Yeah, I don’t know why anyone would oppose this. The illicit market is thriving right now. It would seem to make sense to allow legal, tested products into the marketplace as soon as possible to protect the public and to begin launching our adult-use cannabis market.
Assuming these things do pass and the OCM begins issuing temporary licenses to social equity businesses this summer, like interim OCM Director Charlene Briner suggested last week, how soon do you think we could actually see dispensaries open?
Well, this is a plant that you need to grow. The supply chain begins with the seed in the soil. The date upon which cultivators are first licensed will dictate when dispensaries will actually have product to sell.
Now, is OCM and the governor’s office or someone else going to figure out a way to either have our current medical providers or our tribal nations provide products to the adult-use cannabis market? I don’t know. But that would be a method to get product to dispensaries sooner than waiting for a licensed adult-use cannabis cultivator to grow marijuana from scratch.
Have you heard rumblings along those lines?
Yes, among OCM’s recommendations are merging the supply lines from the existing medical cannabis licensees and the adult-use cannabis program. There are also, I’m told, negotiations underway between the governor’s office and Minnesota’s tribal nations that might allow those tribes to sell adult-use cannabis products throughout the state.
Are there any other lawmakers you’re watching this year, as far as introducing legislation goes?
Frankly, I thought Rep. Stephenson and Sen. Port might be exhausted after last session’s marathon of cannabis work. I’m grateful that they’re apparently willing to stay in the mix because they know cannabis policy better than anybody in the state now, so we need their leadership. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Rep. Jess Hanson, potentially Rep. Aisha Gomez, Sen. Clare Oumou Verbeten be involved. But I don’t know if they will be out front if [Stephenson and Port] are out front.
Briner said she would like legislation to speed up the transfer of oversight for the hemp-derived THC market from the Office of Medical Cannabis to the OCM. What are the issues there?
I understand that at the moment no agency has authority or the practical ability to be testing cannabis flower to determine whether it truly is legal hemp or illegal marijuana. I know that sales of THCa hemp flower have been doing quite well because, arguably, that product is legal under the [2018] federal farm bill and therefore legal under Minnesota’s hemp program. But if you’re selling cannabis flower with a Delta-9 THC concentration of greater than 0.3%, then you’re now selling marijuana illegally because no one other than our medical cannabis licensees and our tribal nations are able to sell those products legally at the moment.
Is the difference between so-called THCa hemp flower and regular cannabis flower just that percentage of THC?
There’s a complicated formula that might push THCa hemp flower into the marijuana category, depending on who you talk to, because THCa when heated turns into Delta-9. It’s a controversial subject and there are very few clear answers.
What questions are you getting most commonly from your clients right now?
Until last week, I personally was under the impression that we were going to be waiting until 2025 for dispensaries to open. I am very excited, and my clients are very excited, that we might be getting started much earlier. There was a lot of pent-up excitement from cannabis entrepreneurs to start serving the market and we’re grateful to hear that may happen sooner than we expected.
How do you think things are going so far with the implementation of the law?
I think everyone knows about the initial stumbles, but OCM is staffing up. They are much more in tune with what it will take to stand up a solid program. Just in meeting with them last week, they all have what I view as the right things in mind in trying to launch a successful adult-use cannabis market in Minnesota.
