Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz recently signed HF-4065 into law, which provides permanent protections for hemp businesses so that the state can legally market things like food and beverages infused with CBD and other legal cannabinoids.
After signing the new legislation, Walz put out a press release and made a statement directly addressing the opioid overdose crisis in his remarks about the changes to drug legislation. Though his focus may have been a bit scattered during the signing, the bill is huge for the cannabis industry, as it marks an important step for policy reform and safeguarding existing businesses
Cannabis advocates are still hoping to see full cannabis legislation despite the Republican Senate in Minnesota. While Democratic leadership has been pushing for more cannabis legislation, they seem to be fighting a losing battle when it comes to seeing results in the senate.
The newly signed bill will be a huge help in correcting a legislative drafting problem that occurred due to state lawmakers wanting hemp policy to be in line with federal policy after the 2018 Farm Bill legalized hemp. With this new legislation passed, CBD can now be legally sold in food, beverages, and topicals, as well as some other products, as long as they contain less than the federal limit of 0.3% THC. Edibles and beverages will be able to contain 5 mg of THC per serving, 50 mg per package.
Additionally, the THC limit will apply to all psychoactive substances, meaning it includes delta-8 THC as well, and other gray-area cannabis products like delta-8 THC that exist in that market. While the federal government has ruled delta-8 still legal under the 2018 Farm Bill, different states are enacting different regulations as they see fit.
The bill also creates an age limit for the sale of these products, which can only be sold to those 21 and up, and sets testing, labeling, and packaging requirements for the products.
Advocates are pushing for reform across the board on the heels of this, including looking to expand marijuana decriminalization to non-flower forms of cannabis, but so far, this is the only bill that has received full approval.
Despite the different challenges the state is facing when it comes to legalization overall, Gov. Walz is mostly pro-legalization when it comes to the bigger cannabis conversation. He has expressed his desire to fund reform and has even worked that into his annual budget request for next year.
However, he declined to put money towards his prior budget request, and said this year that he wants funding for an adult-use cannabis industry that lines up with the bill passed in the House.
Still, it is unclear whether or not that will eventually get passed and approved. Back in 2019, Walz started working on getting state agencies ready to prepare for legalization in anticipation of a future industry that still hasn’t come to fruition.
So far, though the House passed legal cannabis last year, it hasn’t been enacted, but the governor did expand the state’s medical cannabis program, allowing for smokable cannabis, and he made this recent concession for legal CBD.
According to a recent poll taken by lawmakers in Minnesota, 58.3% of residents are in favor of legal cannabis, an increase from 2019, when 56.3% were in support.
There are also hopes that 2022 will bring a ballot measure for legal cannabis if the legislature doesn’t push through, but so far, that does not appear to be in the works.
While there are definitely some setbacks to legalization in Minnesota, this CBD legislation is a big step forward to legal operators in the industry.
