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CHRONICLING LEGAL CANNABIS IN MINNESOTA

By Matt DeLong

In this week's Nuggets: A state task force recommends decriminalizing magic mushrooms; looking back at Minnesota cannabis in 2024 and what to expect in 2025; Minnesota adult-use marijuana license applicants start new year with uncertainty, hope; a roundup of new local pot ordinances; the deadline for social equity applicants to request a refund is approaching; Reps. Ilhan Omar and Dina Titus named co-chairs of Congressional Cannabis Caucus; and a wedding planner shares tips for including cannabis in your big day. 

State task force recommends decriminalizing magic mushrooms: On New Year’s Day, Minnesota’s Psychedelic Medicine Task Force — a panel of experts tasked with advising the Legislature on issues related to the potential legalization of some psychedelic drugs for therapeutic purposes — issued a 191-page report that calls for lawmakers to remove criminal penalties for the personal use, possession, cultivation (for noncommercial purposes) and sharing of psilocybin mushrooms. It also recommends that the Legislature create a state-regulated clinical program for the therapeutic use of psilocybin and earmark additional funding for “more research into the health benefits of MDMA, psilocybin and LSD." The task force considered proposals to similarly decriminalize LSD and MDMA, but those failed to receive the support of a two-thirds supermajority of members. If lawmakers follow the task force’s recommendation, Minnesota would become the third state to decriminalize psilocybin mushrooms, after Oregon and Colorado.

A mea culpa: In the last edition of Nuggets, we included an item about a cannabis flower and concentrate giveaway from a local business. We should not have done that. In an email, Office of Cannabis Management spokesman Josh Collins let us know that under current law, while individuals age 21 or older are allowed to gift up to 2 ounces of cannabis flower or 8 grams of concentrates, businesses are barred from giving away cannabis products in all circumstances. In the future, we will not include cannabis giveaways in the newsletter.

Looking back at Minnesota cannabis in 2024 and what to expect in 2025: MPR News recaps Minnesota’s year in cannabis and looks ahead to the legislative session, the opening of the state’s legal pot market and the roles local governments and tribal nations could play in the coming year. Read more.

Minnesota adult-use marijuana license applicants start new year with uncertainty, hope: “Instead of putting the finishing touches on their businesses in anticipation of Minnesota’s adult-use market launch early this year, cannabis license applicants instead face delays and uncertainty. But if entrepreneurs’ patience and capital lasts long enough to win a license and hold on until Minnesota’s recreational cannabis launch — now projected for early 2026 — their reward will be a robust market brimming with opportunity and innovation, according to observers of the state’s regulated marijuana market,” Omar Sacirbey writes for MJBizDaily. Read more.

Local cannabis ordinance roundup: With moratoriums on new cannabis businesses enacted by local governments expiring Jan. 1, the end of 2024 saw a flurry of county and city ordinances outlining how and where pot businesses may operate. Here is a rundown of recent local news coverage of new ordinances across Minnesota:

Deadline for social equity applicants to request a refund is approaching: Applicants to the canceled social equity preapproval lottery have until Jan. 10 to request a refund of their application fee. Also, a new two-week window will open Jan. 15 for prospective social equity applicants to have their social equity status verified. Those who have already had their status verified do not need to be verified again for upcoming lotteries. 

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Jan. 9 (Thu.): Home Grow Get Together - A free, weekly event every Thursday. 6-8 p.m. CannaJoyMN, 4753 Chicago Av., Minneapolis. More info. 

Jan. 10 (Fri.): The Winter Hotbox - Live music plus an infused hot cocoa bar, heated hotbox tent, retro video game tournament, vendors and more. Presented by Twin Cities Botanicals. 8-11:30 p.m. Hook & Ladder Theater Mission Room, 3010 Minnehaha Av., Minneapolis. Tickets and more info.

Talk to us! We want to hear what you think about Nuggets. Send feedback, questions, events, story tips or new feature ideas to nuggets@startribune.com.

Marcus in St. Joseph sent us this Gorilla Glue autoflower from Barney's Farm, growing in living soil with Buildasoil amendments. Thanks for sharing!

Homegrowers, show off your plants! Share your best photo with us by clicking the button below and we'll publish one each week in Nuggets. By submitting a photo you affirm that you own the rights to it and you are granting permission to the Star Tribune to publish it on its platforms.

Kastina Morrison

Kastina & Co.

kastinaandco.com

Morrison spoke with Nuggets about how they pulled it off and shared tips for couples interested in a marijuana-inclusive wedding.

Is planning weddings that include cannabis a new thing for you? 

I think it's a new thing for everybody — in Minnesota, at least. For me, it's a new thing that clients are asking about and wanting. It’s interesting because people still also don't know how to incorporate it, because the rules are ever changing right now for how it can be used, and a lot is not defined. 

How did you get started planning cannabis-inclusive weddings?

Rachelle [Gordon, editor of cannabis news and lifestyle website Greenstate.com] was the first bride that came to me that was like, “This absolutely needs to be part of our event in a formal way.” It's not just people outside smoking it. It's like, no, this is presented. This is offered. This is part of it, even in the decor. This is part of our story. I knew her from college, so she's been following my journey. I've been following her journey and the cannabis world that she’s in, professionally. So I was so happy when she came to me and said, “Can you plan my wedding, and can we make this a big part?” 

I said, "Yes, and you're going to be one of the first, and if we do this, well, you'll be one of the first that we can publicize it with."

Walk me through what you did for this wedding and how cannabis was included.

We had to think about it first and foremost, from the standpoint of, yes, it's legal, but what is and isn't legal still in Minnesota? Along the way, we were making sure we were paying attention to any changing rules with the state and we had to make sure that we could offer it to guests in a legal and safe way. How do we do that? Well, first of all, you can't sell it, cannabis flower. It was all provided and hosted by the client, because the groom, Kurt, is a grower. He grew three strains for the wedding. Just like a regular bar at a wedding where you have a bar menu, we had a menu of his strains. And we had the budtender, who had sampled and tried all the strains as well, and worked with Kurt to understand them — to be able to tell people about the different strains.

Jesse Lo Photography

The budtender was a licensed drug and alcohol abuse counselor, and has been in the cannabis scene himself for years, and is well aware of the side effects. So that was like an extra insurance policy — having somebody who knew about what the plant’s effects could be. I think that is important, given that there is no formal training to be a budtender. There's no training to offer products to people. I think there will be in the future. I think it's going to follow the path and the rules of alcohol. But right now, there isn't. So we had to make decisions about, how do we play it safe? How do we elevate this experience? 

When I put my venue manager hat on and think through all the venues where I have a liquor license and I have to protect that, the biggest concern you have, potentially, with cannabis and alcohol being offered, is people being crossfaded [under the influence of marijuana and alcohol simultaneously, which can compound the effects of the substances]. That can be a very uncomfortable experience. So that was our biggest worry. It didn't happen. The people that were experienced with cannabis went for it. If people weren't, the budtender could make little joints for them, or they could just get a THC drink. We specifically asked for bartenders that knew about the plant or had experience with the plant, too, so they could talk about the THC drink effects as well. 

Can you talk about the decor?

That was probably, visually, one of the most stunning parts. Kurt, the groom, gave us whole stalks of weed plants, which I don't know if you'll ever see that again at a wedding. Maybe you will, but it's pretty visually shocking to see a whole weed plant in a floral arrangement. There was also a hanging installation in the tent as well. It definitely had an aroma. You could smell it. [St. Paul's Style Society handled the floral arrangements.]

Jesse Lo Photography

I imagine the insurance is a major consideration. Does that add a lot of cost?

No, not right now. No one really knows what to do with or about it. When you go to get one-day event insurance from a place like WedSafe.com, you check boxes of what you're trying to insure. One of the boxes is “Are you selling alcohol?” I don't even know that they necessarily have a box that says, “Are you serving cannabis?” So it's not like the whole system is set up to even do this kind of wedding yet. It's about $150 right now for one-day event insurance. Sometimes, depending on what you're protecting, it can be cheaper than that, too. 

If you were at a venue that already had their insurance covered, you probably didn't need the $150 policy. But [at the recent wedding], they got it. They just knew that in the worst case scenario, somebody drove away drunk or cross-faded, they need to be protected. That's all I feel like I know how to say on insurance, because there just isn't really insurance [for cannabis] — other than working to protect yourself by just having one-day event insurance.

The lack of insurance coverage for cannabis events is something that could potentially change in the future.

Yeah, it’ll have to. 

Does the inclusion of cannabis make the event planning more challenging in other ways? 

It just made it more challenging in the aspect of, did we think through everything, with this extra substance that will make people not sober? Are we doing everything we can. [The couple] also forced into the budget having shuttles back to the hotels. They didn’t necessarily have that in the budget at the beginning, but we really wanted to be careful and added shuttles to make sure they could get people off the property. 

We also chose not to do liquor for the bar, we chose to do beer, wine and THC drinks. And [other nonalcoholic] options as well. 

I think the biggest problem was keeping people away from the dessert bar while we were setting it up during dinner. They were like vultures. 

If someone wants to include cannabis in their wedding or in the reception, what should they be thinking about at the outset?

First and foremost you need to consider where you're going to do the wedding. When people are thinking about doing a cannabis inclusive event, it's going to heavily depend on the formality of the venue. If you're at a farm or outside the city, it might be a little easier. That's going to be number one. Number two, I think the best thing we did is to include the transportation and pull hard liquor from the bar and just have beer and wine. 

You know your guests best. You should be able to evaluate: Are my people responsible partiers? Are they not-so-responsible when they party? You need to think through your guests, think through the menu, think through the bar. Having late-night food was important. You need to think about how you can support a safe experience. 

Do you think this will be a growing sector in the wedding industry? 

Absolutely, this is definitely going to be a growing element in the industry. Just given the rules in Minnesota, it's probably going to focus less on smoking, and more so on oils or gummies or other treats that are infused with THC, just because you can’t smoke inside, and a lot of venues don't allow it. But it's going to continue to be asked for, especially if more people are going alcohol-sober and the growing demand for mocktails, I think this will be a way that the world shifts everywhere, not just weddings.

Got questions about cannabis? 

Send them to us and we'll do our best to answer as many as we can in future newsletters.