Hemp farmers, retailers concerned with direction of Minnesota marijuana legalization bill

By CAROLINE CUMMINGS

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    ST. PAUL, Minnesota (WCCO) — As state lawmakers move towards legalizing marijuana in Minnesota, some in the hemp industry raised concern Tuesday about how the proposal will impact their existing cannabis businesses.

Last summer, the legislature approved low-doses of THC, a chemical that can produce a high, in food and drinks as long as it comes from hemp – a cannabis cousin to marijuana that’s been de-scheduled and legal at the federal level since 2018.

The sweeping marijuana legislation that’s nearly 300 pages long would set up a new state Office of Cannabis Management, tax, and regulate weed. It also includes new taxes, fees and state licensing on hemp products.

“There’s a lot of great things in the bill. But there are a lot of things we would like to see changed,” said Michael Ford, owner of business Cannafitiva. “By no means do we not want to see the bill passed, but we would like the legislators to take our issues seriously.”

A coalition of hemp farmers and retailers during a news conference on Tuesday said they believe hemp should not be included in the marijuana legislation in the first place, and argue taxing the products at the same rate as marijuana is unfair.

Both hemp and marijuana products would face an additional 8% gross receipts tax on top of sales taxes and licensing fees under this plan.

They also characterized new regulations proposed as complex and overly burdensome.

There is no state licensing or gross receipts tax on hemp products in current law, which supporters and authors of the hemp changes last year say was unfinished business for the legislature to tackle this session.

“The bill mostly does what [hemp producers] want it to do,” said Ryan Winkler, chair of Minnesota is Ready and former House Majority Leader who authored an earlier version of the marijuana bill. “But nobody is going to get everything, and maybe they’re having a hard time accepting the fact that the Wild West won’t continue forever in Minnesota.”

Hemp producers also raised concern about parts of the bill related to social equity, saying it doesn’t go far enough to address communities disproportionately impacted by cannabis convictions.

Social equity criteria would play a role in determining who will get a license to operate a marijuana business.

“As stated right now, as a minority business owner, I would not qualify as a social equity applicant if I haven’t been convicted of cannabis offense or federal living impacted community anymore,” Ford said of these provisions. “I don’t feel like that’s right for any social equity applicant.”

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