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Minnesota Senate passes marijuana legalization [1]

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Date: 2023-04-28  

Star Tribune - Minnesota Senate passes marijuana legalization bill, bringing it closer to law than ever before

The Minnesota Senate cast its first vote to legalize recreational marijuana Friday, pushing the proposal closer to becoming law than ever before. Senators passed the DFL-led marijuana bill on a 34-33 vote, with all Democrats voting for it and all Republicans opposed. The House approved its marijuana bill Tuesday. The bills now head to a conference committee where their differences must be reconciled in a final version. DFL Gov. Tim Walz has said he will sign a marijuana bill if it reaches his desk. Once the two bills are merged, the House and Senate will hold final votes on the compromise version.

The differences between the House and Senate bills aren’t large, and it is fully expected that the Minnesota legislature will pass the compromise version. The Senate version allows those grow grow their own to possess up to 5 pounds of marijuana; those who buy would be able to possess up to 2 pounds. Meanwhile, the House bill limits amounts at 1.5 pounds. The Senate bill allows cities* to limit the number of dispensaries, but the House bill doesn’t allow any such limitations. The Senate bill also has a 10% tax on marijuana while the House only has an 8% tax.

Personally, I think if towns limit dispensaries, people will just set them up outside of the city limits. I’m not terribly concerned about how the details are worked out between the House and Senate version, that’s just brass tacks.

This is a big victory for Governor Walz and the DFL (Democratic-Farmer Labor, the name for the Democratic Party in Minnesota). After winning both chambers of the state legislature, there was a lot of pressure to legalize, and Gov. Walz led the push to get this done. Not only does it show that Democrats can deliver, it’s going to put and end to the marijuana parties in Minnesota. There are a couple marijuana parties that have been funded by the Republican Party to splinter votes from the DFL, with legalization these parties will wither away. It should just be a matter of days before it gets to the Governor’s desk.

*note: in Minnesota all incorporated towns are cities. The smallest city in Minnesota is Kinbrae, population 10. There are larger unincorporated communities, but all incorporated towns are cities. Legally, they’re cities, even if people call them towns or villages. This really isn’t important to this story, but I think it’s interesting.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/28/2166501/-Minnesota-Senate-passes-marijuana-legalization

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