With the passage of recent legislation, cannabis stores and dispensaries in the Brainerd lakes area are gearing up toward the future.
In 2014, lawmakers approved a bill which legalized limited use of medical marijuana with products becoming available in 2015. In 2022, Minnesota legalized the sale and consumption of edibles containing small amounts of hemp-derived THC. Gov. Tim Walz signed the cannabis legalization bill, allowing the recreational use of cannabis for adults starting Aug. 1, 2023.
Without a fully operational licensing body to issue licenses to recreational dispensaries, people can expect to wait until at least early 2025 before seeing recreational dispensaries opening their doors. With the Office of Cannabis Management being a brand new state agency created with the passage of Minnesota's new legal cannabis bill, Charlene Briner, interim director of the Office of Cannabis Management, said they have been building the agency from the ground up.
"We're building the regulatory framework, we're writing the rules that businesses will have to adhere to," Briner said. "We're hiring the staff to carry out everything from licensing to inspections to enforcement and education activities."
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