In a rush to legalize cannabis last year, Democrats created numerous challenges for Minnesotans. Instead of repairing the problems in this bill, Senate Democrats last week passed legislation that makes the licensure process even more convoluted and less fair. This highly partisan bill fails to take any meaningful steps to address critical safety concerns–especially for children–or the problems that still exist due to lack of local control and the complex and biased licensure process.

Last year’s legislation legalized possessing a product that is not widely available for sale across the state, except on select tribal lands. It also created loopholes for possession for minors and failed to prohibit consumption and possession near schools.

“When passing bills like this, protecting children should be the top priority, because we want to keep our kids safe and protected from addictive substances, but that is completely missing from this bill,” said Sen. Jeff Howe (R-Rockville). “Senate Republicans offered an amendment to treat underage cannabis use in the same way we do as underage alcohol consumption. The amendment would have increased that penalty from a petty misdemeanor to a misdemeanor. We should be teaching our kids that actions have consequences. Unfortunately, Senate Democrats were uninterested in accepting our amendment.”

Republicans offered multiple amendments to address these shortcomings and align penalties for minor consumption, including proposals to:

• Treat underage cannabis the same as underage alcohol
• Increase the penalty for underage cannabis from a petty misdemeanor to a misdemeanor

Democrats refused to accept these changes.

The cannabis licensure structure created last session weaves a complex classification system that favors select groups, including those with a criminal past. This year’s Office of Cannabis Management bill further complicates the system. Notably, this legislation contains controversial social equity language to use a lottery system to award only select constituencies the coveted early licenses.

Finally, under the cannabis legalization bill from last year, local communities cannot deny cannabis licenses and have limited ability to regulate the number and location of facilities selling cannabis.

“There’s also another issue that has yet to be touched on: cannabis is still a federally-regulated drug, and that means anyone who possesses or uses this drug is forfeiting their Second Amendment rights,” said Howe. “Folks are not being told all they need to know about this law and how it will affect them down the line.”

The bill passed on a party-line vote.