On Thursday, February 9, the Senate Democrats’ bill to legalize recreational marijuana (Senate File 73) in Minnesota passed out of the Senate Committee on Environment, Climate, and Legacy along party-line votes. This is just one of the 18 committee stops that the legislation must pass before it goes to the Senate floor, and next, it will move to the Senate Transportation Committee. 

Under this legislation, an adult over the age of 21 may use, possess, or transport cannabis and paraphernalia. This bill would also create the Office of Cannabis Management and the Cannabis Advisory Council. These organizations would oversee the state’s production and sale of cannabis flowers, cannabinoid products, and hemp-derived consumer products as well as the medical cannabis program. 

“The are many glaring issues with the Democrats’ proposal to legalize recreational marijuana in Minnesota,” said Senator Gary Dahms (R – Redwood Falls). “This legislation is far too broad, and its language leads to countless questions that need to be answered. Yet instead of fixing these issues throughout the committee process, the Democrat majority continues to force this bill onto the next committee stop.” 

Major concerns raised on this legislation, include:

• Insufficient infrastructure in place to regulate marijuana;
• Law enforcement officers’ concerns, many of which involve driving while impaired; and
• Children’s access to drugs and potential intoxication and overdose (for more information, see a recent Rochester Post Bulletin story); and
• The impact this legislation would have on medical cannabis manufacturers, as their licenses would expire on July 1, 2024.

To address these concerns, Senate Republicans have offered several amendments to ensure important safety regulations are in place. Democrats, however, continue to reject these commonsense proposals. 

“A common theme of this session is Democrat legislation lacking an accurate fiscal note, and this same pattern endures with their marijuana legislation. How can we create a large new agency to oversee regulation without knowing the additional costs this will have on Minnesotans? As this legislation advances, I hope to see the folks carrying this bill back up a little and see the flaws,” Senator Dahms concluded. 

Click here to view Senator Dahms’s comments. 

Senator Dahms is in his fifth term representing Senate District 15 which includes communities in Blue Earth, Brown, Chippewa, Lac qui Parle, Lyon, Redwood, and Yellow Medicine counties. He also serves as the Republican Lead on the Senate Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee and is a member of the Agriculture, Broadband, and Rural Development Committee and Finance Committee.