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Poll: Majority in Minnesota Want Legal Weed

Minnesotans were able to taste legal cannabis for the first time in two months. New polls show that Minnesotans are now ready to buy legal cannabis.

According to the new MPR News/Star Tribune/KARE 11 poll, 53% of Minnesota’s registered voters support legalizing recreational marijuana use. 36% of those voters disapprove. The poll found that eleven percent Minnesota voters weren’t sure.

This is in light of a state law, which was passed in July and allows the sale products that have a little THC.

This new law was not passed by the legislature. It caught consumers off-guard and some legislators when it hit the shelves in summer.

Heather Edelson, a Democratic State House Rep. said that she wrote the document to put standards and regulations on underregulated hemp products.

“There were these products that essentially didn’t really have regulations on them. But people were consuming them,” Edelson said at the time.“They were being sold all over the state of Minnesota, and a lot of them in gas stations.”

Food and beverages containing.3% THC are allowed to be sold under the new law as long the cannabinoid was legally extracted from legal hemp.

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture was able to sell a variety of edibles, and some local authorities were forced into imposing their own sales restrictions.

Some Republican legislators claimed that they were unaware of the potential consequences of the bill, and they felt blindsided.

“I thought we were doing a technical fix, and it winded up having a broader impact than I expected,” Republican state Sen. Jim Abeler said at the time.

Results from the recent survey suggest that Minnesota voters want to see cannabis reform go further.

As Minnesota Public Radio reported, support “for legalizing cannabis cuts across age groups, voters’ geographic location, level of education, race and gender, with majorities backing the plan across those categories,” although legalization “faces greater opposition among Republicans, with just under 65% of those who identified as Republicans opposing the proposal to make cannabis available for recreational use, compared to 29% of GOP voters who support it.”

This poll was conducted between September 12-14 using 800 registered voters. The margin of error is 3.5%

Minnesota’s legislature is split right now, with Democrats holding the majority of the Senate and Republicans controlling the House. The state’s Democratic governor, Tim Walz, has expressed his support for the legalization of recreational cannabis use for adults.

In his office’s budget proposal in January, Walz called on the legislature to legalize recreational pot use and establish a new Cannabis Management Office to regulate sales in the state.

The governor’s budget proposal would dedicate “25 million dollars toward the legalization of adult-use marijuana in Minnesota,” FOX9 reported.

The Cannabis Management Office would “be tasked with developing a framework for legal cannabis in Minnesota,” the station reported, and the $25 million in earmarked funds “would also pay for grants for ‘individuals entering the legal cannabis market.’”

 On April 20 this year, Walz reiterated his support for the policy.

“It’s time to legalize adult-use cannabis and expunge cannabis convictions in Minnesota,” Walz said on Twitter.

Walz could be re-elected this year. Scott Jensen (his Republican challenger), has stated that he favors putting Minnesota’s legalization question on the ballot.

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