A new high for marijuana retail in Minnesota is almost here, say state cannabis regulators

Amid the coffeeshops and cocktail lounges that dot the intersection of West th Street and South Lyndale Avenue in Minneapolis sits the Loon Smoke Shop where amiable loiterers congregate late into the evening vaping or smoking You might soon find a scene like this a sparse blocks south at the smoke shop s new dispensary which is in the final moves of the state cannabis licensing process and is hiring people passionate about the marijuana industry We re currently looking for budtenders lead budtenders and store managers an Instagram post read When Gov Tim Walz signed bill legalizing cannabis in there was a retail target that stores across the state would open by at the latest As MinnPost has diligently chronicled that hasn t happened Demanded last week which of the DFL-controlled Legislature s myriad laws passed in is preponderance formidable to implement Gov Tim Walz was quick to say legal weed That might be changing In the last month the Minnesota Office of Cannabis Management has granted final approval to five retailers to begin selling cannabis the first such businesses not operated by one of the state s tribal nations By the end of the year Minnesota could see up to marijuana businesses not owned by the tribes according to Eric Taubel interim director of the Office of Cannabis Management Taubel noted in an interview that if a cannabis shop is slow to get off the ground the weed entrepreneur can no longer blame a cumbersome state licensing process We ve transitioned to the point where the onus is on the applicant and a prospective business owner Taubel noted Here is an assessment of where Minnesota is in legalizing it I want legal marijuana now Where can I buy it in Minnesota Except for drinks at bars and liquor stores infused with hemp-derived THC the sale of marijuana is still confined to tribal operators Returning to Minnesota marijuana legalization the state law permits tribes to determine how they want to oversee grow and sales operations Minnesota is a national leader in its approach to cannabis and tribal nations Taubel revealed Gov Walz and Lt Gov Flanagan have been leaders in what tribes can do and recognize their inherent sovereignty As a impact Minnesotans can stop reading this article and drive right now to retailers on tribal lands Stores have been open since August when the Red Lake Nation opened a dispensary The law also lets these tribes operate pot businesses outside reservation land if they agree to an overall regulatory compact with the Office of Cannabis Management The first such compact was finalized in May with the White Earth Nation which has since opened stores in St Cloud and Moorhead Jacob Schlichter owner of The Smoking Tree cannabis dispensary stands for a portrait in his new retail space on Tuesday July in Albert Lea Minnesota Credit Ellen Schmidt MinnPost CatchLight Local Assessment for America I don t think any other state has a model like this revealed Leila Fatehi a lawyer at Blunt Strategies an aptly named Minneapolis-based law firm representing pot businesses I don t think it was anticipated that the tribal undertaking and operations would start so far ahead of non-tribal licenses What about the five non-tribal licenses you mentioned The Office of Cannabis Management granted final approval in June for a company called Herb-Quest to operate a cultivation center in Pine County Then this week Concentrate Labs doing business as Roots and Resin Farm got the state s greenlight to open its own cultivation site in Chisago County And The Smoking Tree Loon Lab Extracts and Research not to be confused with Loon Dispensary and Fairwater Farm nabbed licenses to sell pot in the cities of Albert Lea Isanti and Plainview respectively Related Cannabis retailers address nuanced regulatory landscape ahead of their business debuts These five businesses not only cleared state hurdles but also went through the county and city approval process more or less Jacob Schlichter founder of the Smoking Tree recounted MinnPost that he must still get final permission at a July Albert Lea City Council meeting But Schlichter described this step as a formality He fully expects to open his shop in the coming weeks What is this I m seeing about cannabis state lotteries In June applicants won a lottery held by the Office of Cannabis Management including the aforementioned Lyndale Avenue Loon dispensary Each winner qualified for social equity status whose criteria can include veteran status being a victim of the war on drugs or coming from a high-poverty area Related from MinnPost s archives How Minnesota s social equity cannabis rules are playing out On Tuesday the office held a second lottery with winners out of applicants a pool that included applicants who did not qualify for equity status But winning these lotteries is just one step in the path toward a state license Though city and county governments are not legally permitted to reject a pot business they can put forth requirements such as a store being a certain distance away from a school Each municipality handles zoning differently Taubel acknowledged The county and city may only meet every month The Cannabis Management interim director described a checker board of additional approaches including submitting to a criminal background check While the state wants to help casualties of stern drug possession laws they do not want to assist convicted white-collar criminals and a labor agreement that affords employees rights in exchange for no pickets boycotts or strikes at the cannabis business Once lottery winners jump through these hoops they can apply with the state for final approval So why weren t recreational cannabis stores opened by at the latest Walz attributed delays in part to shifting leadership at the Office of Cannabis Management In January one interim director Charlene Briner was replaced by another interim head Taubel And before Briner there was a botched hire in that led to a review by the Office of the Legislative Auditor Walz declared of Taubel I think he s done a fantastic job But the governor declined to say whether he will be named permanent director The governor also mentioned There really was not a model of how to do it adding that each of the states preceding Minnesota in legalizing pot have struggled to a certain degree The model the state chose is also an atypical one In Minnesota the rollout has been a bit slower than in other states which relied on incumbent curative marijuana dispensaries Fatehi commented Minnesota created a framework to have a larger pool of applicants That choice is now bearing fruit Taubel reported as dozens of legal pot stores numerous founded by entrepreneurs new to the industry should come online by the end of the year One concern of a few non-tribal businesses is that the tribes got too much of a headstart Fatehi was skeptical of this line of thinking But she did say early Minnesota retailers are likely to buy from tribal cultivators Another worry is that legal weed becomes too expensive A state budget otherwise conspicuous in its absence of new revenue raised the cannabis tax from to Including state and local sales tax customers will pay north of a levy on each cannabis purchase There is absolutely an enormous cause of concern that it is taxed too high Fatehi noted Taubel defended the tax as middle of the road compared to other states It is a very long metaphorical road Per the Tax Foundation Connecticut has the lowest weed excise tax at Washington state sports the highest at I m a little suspect that the increase will have substantial ripple effects Taubel stated MinnPost reporter Brian Arola contributed to this story The post A new high for marijuana retail in Minnesota is almost here say state cannabis regulators appeared first on MinnPost