Minnesota Governor Notifies State Agencies to Prepare for Cannabis Legalization

In 2019, Governor Tim Walz (D) directed Minnesota state agencies to begin preparing for cannabis legalization, which supporters hoped would pass in 2020. Legislators continued to weigh the framework needed for a regulated marketplace. Even then, adult-use legalization seemed to be on the horizon.

Preparing State Agencies

Governor Walz addressed the subject during an interview with Minnesota Public Radio, saying, “My agencies have been tasked to put all of the building blocks in place, from Revenue to the Department of Public Safety to the Department of Health. We will have everything ready to go, and we will be able to implement it in Minnesota the minute the Legislature moves this.”

At the time, the biggest obstacle was getting legalization legislation through a Republican-controlled Senate. However, the Governor and House leadership were committed to finding a way forward for recreational sales. In fact, a recent legalization bill had passed the House but died in a Senate committee.

New Legalization Bill

Minnesota House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler was already drafting a new bill to legalize cannabis, which he planned to sponsor in the first session of 2020. He recently published an editorial explaining, “We need to be serious about this issue. In this year’s legislative session, Republicans in the Minnesota Senate blocked a DFL House proposal to create a task force to study legalization. This would have been a sensible way to address the many issues associated with our current cannabis prohibition and legalization for adult use.”

Conversely, Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka predicted the new bill would share a similar fate. “It’s dead as far as I’m concerned in the Senate for next year,” he noted. “We’ve gone through the due diligence and the process to listen to the issue. There were just a lot of negative issues around recreational marijuana.”

Advocates Continue to Fight for Reform

Meanwhile, many advocates with Minnesotans for Responsible Marijuana Regulation kept fighting for reform. The organization’s campaign manager, Leili Fatehi, recently met with the Governor to discuss the strategy for legalization.

Fatehi remarked on the meeting, saying, “We had a direct conversation with the governor last week where he made it clear he wants to act on legalization and has instructed all applicable departments to have answers prepared before the start of the 2020 legislative session about the different regulatory dimensions of legalization (taxation, licensing, public safety, etc.).”

Cannabis Task Force

One factor that could shift the thinking was the formation of a governor’s task force to research and develop a fair, organized taxation and licensing process. A bill to fund such a task force had been reviewed and approved by two House committees in February that year, though it still had to clear the Senate.

Corey Day, chair of the Cannabis for Economic Growth committee, believed common ground could be found in the economics of legalization. He was quick to point out, “Our goal is to talk about the economy of it all. Taxation, revenue, entrepreneurship, how this new economy is going to help the state.”

At the time, strong support from the state’s executive branch and House made legalization look increasingly likely. Minnesota ultimately legalized adult-use cannabis in 2023, several years after these early efforts. In hindsight, having a game plan in place helped smooth the eventual transition.