We caught up with Wilken-Simon again this year for a preview of what attendees can expect at this weekend’s event – as well as his plans for the future and his work with Minnesota’s Cannabis Advisory Board, which provides research and recommendations to the Office of Cannabis Management.
Full disclosure: The Legacy Cup is an advertising partner with the Minnesota Star Tribune. This interview was requested weeks ago, before that agreement was negotiated with our marketing department. It has been edited for length and clarity.
For those who haven’t been before, what is the Legacy Cup?
The Legacy Cup is a multifaceted celebration of legal cannabis, so there’s something for everybody. New this year is a full half pipe and professional skateboarders doing skate demos, and a car show. The core of the Legacy Cup is the cup competition, which is crowning the winners for Minnesota’s best homegrown cannabis flower and solventless hash, local edible products – from the best THC soda to the best THC gummy and more. There’s the ganja games, which is a fun day of cannabis competitions, from joint rolling to bong hits to the headiest pipe. This is a place where Minnesotans can bring their own cannabis flower and hash and be able to actually legally consume on-site with each other in consumption lounges.
We’re excited about our whole music lineup. Dessa has been waving the flag for Minnesota hip-hop for so many years. Lupe Fiasco is an incredible artist who has crisscrossed the world. We have some really cool other local groups, and I can’t forget about the classic Luniz.They’re going to be playing over the 4:20 hour. Of course, also tons of vendors, lots of free samples, live art and food.
How many people are you expecting?
Last year we had a little over 12,000, so this year we’re looking at the 15,000 to 20,000 range, especially with Lupe Fiasco being such a draw on his own.
Do you see the Legacy Cup returning to Surly next year? At what point will it outgrow the site?
It will, at some point, outgrow. But there are so many factors involved in site selection. So far, Surly’s been a great partner with us. The advantage is that they have so much built-in infrastructure. With all of the festival field shows they’ve been doing with First Avenue, they have a team at Surly that is experienced with large-scale events. I hope to be back at Surly next year. We’ll see where we’re at with the state licensing. This event is perfect to actually have a cannabis event organizer license issued by the Office of Cannabis Management. Fingers crossed, a year from now that would allow us to have dispensaries, hash makers and cannabis growers with state licenses at the event as vendors, legally selling flower and hash that so far hasn’t been able to be sold at the cup.
This year we were able to expand our footprint to take over a much bigger area of the property, to actually get the street in front of Surly closed down by the city of Minneapolis and to also do a full takeover of the Surly beer garden area. As this event grows, we can continue to expand that footprint into other lots around Surly.
The event will expand into the beer garden this year? Will there be alcohol sales?
No, alcohol will only be sold inside the Surly building, not outside as part of the event.
I’ve been asked about the new sampling ticket, which allows access to a special tent for samples. Is that the only place samples will be allowed, or will vendors still be allowed to hand out samples at their booths?
Vendors will be allowed to hand out samples. The cool thing about the sampling ticket is it’s a little bit more structured sampling experience. We have all the competitors from the cup competition that have commercial products that are legally available – your beverages, your edibles, your chocolates – they will all have samples so Minnesotans can see who all the competitors are vying for the Legacy Cup trophies and be able to sample all of those [products]. You’re guaranteed to be able to try everything.
There are more and more cannabis-focused events happening across Minnesota. Just last weekend, Dabbler Depot held its Doobie Dabbler event in Shakopee [organizers said about 6,000 people attended]. Do you have any concerns that the market could become oversaturated with these large events?
I don’t, especially when folks are keeping it local, like the Doobie Dabbler, and it’s not some large out-of-state company trying to throw an event here. I’m supportive of as many other local cannabis events. I want to attend some as a fan myself and not have to worry about the organizing. If you compare it to the alcohol industry, how many beer-tasting events and wine events and spirit events are there? It seems like almost all of them sell out, and some of those are $50 to $150 tickets to be able to go in and try all the different craft beers. I think there’s plenty of room in the cannabis event space. I can’t wait to see how creative Minnesotans are with different styles of cannabis events.
I’d like to ask about the Minnesota Cannabis Advisory Board, of which you are a member. Can you talk about how that’s going and what the board is working on?
This is me speaking as Josh Wilken-Simon, not speaking for the OCM or the Cannabis Advisory Board as a whole. I am the expert in cannabis retail appointed by Gov. Walz to the board. I’m really proud to be serving in that position. We currently are having our quarterly meetings. At the last meeting a couple weeks ago, the focus was to go over draft rules which are absolutely critical for the state. I think it’s something not a lot of folks are paying attention to. I think every single Minnesotan – whether they plan to open a cannabis business or be a customer – should take a look, because there’s a lot of stuff at stake in the rulemaking process. There are lots and lots of good things in the rules and obviously some stuff that needs work. The OCM has never done this process before, so where there are places that need work, I think they’re very open to changing these rules.
Can you name any specific things you think need work?
Yeah. In the first draft of rules there is a 70% THC potency limit for concentrates, from hash to vape cartridges. There’s really no place for potency limits, from my perspective. The OCM is mandated to eliminate the illicit market. If they put a potency limit on concentrates, they won’t even make a dent in the illicit market. There’s a high demand for high potency cannabis products. Folks will go to the illicit market if they can’t get it through a dispensary. It actually makes everything more dangerous. Do we want Minnesotans to go to the illicit market and buy a product that is untested for pesticides and solvents, and not having their ID checked? Or do we want them going through a dispensary where they ensure that they’re 21+ and there is testing and lab reports to prove that products are safe?
Another concern I have is the draft rules say cannabis delivery [companies] are not able to accept cash. I think that’s a major problem. First of all, we don’t know where we’re going to be with Schedule I or Schedule III. There’s a very good possibility that, as dispensaries begin to open next year in Minnesota, that everything is cash. How could you have delivery that doesn’t accept cash? Basically, it disenfranchises folks with lower incomes – not everyone has access to a bank account, so they have to buy everything in cash. I’m also worried that it will disenfranchise folks who are unable to go to a dispensary in person for disability or other reasons, and need to rely on a delivery. I don’t know if the reason that was put in was the safety concern of having delivery drivers with large amounts of cash. But other states, like Missouri, have figured out a way to do this right.
What’s your view of how the rollout of legal cannabis is going so far in Minnesota?
I’m cautiously optimistic so far. We hear a lot of complaints from the customers in our shops about how long it’s taking. I think everybody wants this process to go a little faster. But on the flip side, if it takes a little more time to get this thing right, I think that’s important. It’s a huge task to create a multibillion-dollar industry from scratch. We want to make sure that the [legalization bill] authors’ intent of making sure that communities that were disproportionately impacted by prohibition have a leg up in this new legal market – and make sure that this is a small craft cannabis market, not dominated by multi-state operators and large corporations. That stuff takes time.
When we got a look at the first data on applications for social equity licenses, most of the applicants came from out of state. What do you think that says about the prospects for creating a Minnesota-centric craft industry, like the bill authors talked about? Do you think that’s possible?
That was definitely discouraging to see the amount of people from out of state. HF 100 was originally introduced with a residency requirement, and I was personally very forcefully advocating to keep the residency requirement in. When it was pulled out and passed, I along with many other local cannabis folks were lobbying in the last session to put that back in. What we heard from some of the bill authors was that other states that have done residency requirements have had that thrown out in court [citing] the Dormant Commerce Clause. However, my argument back is that, yes, that is true that has happened in some states. But in other states – for example Washington has had a residency requirement for over a decade – the courts in that circuit said this is an illegal federal Schedule I substance, how are we even talking about interstate commerce? And they have thrown out the case. I think many, many aspects of legalization were done right in Minnesota and we have one of the best laws in the country, but I think removing the residency requirement was a major mistake.
