REGIONAL- When Minnesota’s new recreational marijuana law took effect on Aug. 1, an average of one city per day enacted a no-public-use use law against cannabis and cannabinoids during the first three weeks of the month. The no-public-use law that rocked a few social media canoes was Duluth’s ordinance approved on Aug. 14.
The new law, which passed 8-1, prohibits smoking cannabis, smoking tobacco, and vaping in all public parks in the port city. The new ordinance also prohibits use within 100 feet of a medical facility, inside any city transit, and within 15 feet of the nearest point of any transit shelter. The new ordinance now extends the tobacco smoke ban to all parks as well.
Only a few of this month’s ordinances banning public use of recreational substances targeted vaping by name. The specific mention of vaping in the Duluth ordinance received significant discussion on social media, with users wondering why vaping was added to a law aimed at cannabis smoke.
A confusion of laws
Some Minnesota lawmakers were concerned that allowing local jurisdictions to set their own cannabis regulations would result in an ungainly and confusing panoply of local rules and ordinances. Based on feedback from many community leaders, however, the Legislature ultimately gave communities much more local control in the new law’s final version. Minnesota’s new recreational marijuana law allows the smoking of cannabis on private property, at businesses licensed for onsite consumption. What the new law didn’t do was address where cannabis can’t be smoked, which leaves it up to each Minnesota municipality to make its own regulations. That’s exactly what’s been happening. Multiple Minnesota communities started their discussions on no-public-use ordinances in the latter half of July.
Nearly two dozen Minnesota cities which have already passed local ordinances in less than a month prohibiting smoking cannabis in public places. Seven of the cities bundled their no-public-use laws with a moratorium on retail sales of cannabinoids. An additional four cities passed stand-alone moratoriums without a no-public-use ordinance.
The items prohibited in the no-public-use laws varies by city. The nature of moratoriums also varied. The shortest moratorium was for a year and the longest until Jan. 1, 2025.
Stalled laws
Not every community that discussed the new Minnesota marijuana law took actions to prohibit public use or retail sales. City councils in Glenwood and Hutchinson opened discussions on the subject but did not take any actions at their most recent meetings.
Instead of inaction, one city started down the path to a moratorium and then reversed itself. On Aug. 14, the Crookston City Council rejected a second reading of a cannabis and cannabinoid moratorium, according to KROX, on a 4-3 vote with one council member absent. The council members who shot the moratorium down said it felt too hasty and that constituents didn’t think the reasoning supporting it was clear.
Tribal retail
Some of Minnesota’s Indian reservations have been taking a different approach to the implications of the new marijuana law, by taking advantage of their sovereign rights with regards to state law. Federally recognized tribal governments don’t have to wait for Minnesota’s licensing system to sell cannabis. The licensing system will not be in place before 2025, forcing most business to wait a year and a half before retailing recreational cannabis. Red Lake Reservation opened its NativeCare dispensary on Aug. 1 when recreational pot became legal. NativeCare made 300 sales a day upon opening. Red Lake is also setting up a mobile truck to sell cannabis and cannabinoid products on solely reservation lands.
The White Earth Nation was the second tribal government to start sales of cannabis, on Aug. 3. White Earth’s cannabis is grown on tribal land, as part of a business initiative the tribal government started in 2020, in anticipation of the legalization of medical and recreational cannabis use.
Not far behind, the Bois Forte Band is studying the potential sale of recreational cannabis, as reported in the Aug. 4 edition of the Timberjay.