Next week is Lucky Leaf Parties Week

MN CANNABIS UPDATES

Hemp THC can be mailed direct to consumers in Minnesota again, per a lawsuit decided last week. Leili Fatehi of Crested River and others brought the lawsuit challenging MN-OCM's use of an FAQ to prohibit delivery by mail, and Carol Moss and her team at Hellmuth & Johnson won in court. The OCM said it was “disappointed” by the ruling and reaffirmed that businesses must still verify customers are 21 or older and not visibly intoxicated before selling or shipping hemp products. Tip: If you are selling hemp THC on your website, just including a button that says “Yes, I’m 21” is not enough.

The Minnesota Legislature reconvened on Tuesday 2/17. A bill already introduced by Sen. Lindsay Port, a key ally of cannabis advocates, would allow hemp THC companies to continue to test their products out of state, leaving the limited Minnesota testing capacity for the adult-use industry. Hopes are that this will pass and become law soon.

Minnesota's first municipal dispensary (or "muni") opened Feb. 5: the Anoka Cannabis Company. For non-Minnesotan readers, Anoka is a purple suburb in the northern metro area which also runs a city liquor store. MPR and GreenState had stories.

OCM continues to process licenses and new licensees are coming online, including 2 delivery licenses! The chart of Business Application Licenses shows 1,100 microbusinesses still in preliminary approval status, and 5 testing labs in preliminary approval status. Also remember OCM has a Cannabis Market Monitor tool (last updated 1/31), which includes these 2 charts:

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Launching a microbusiness in Minnesota? Before you order grow lighting, here’s something you should know: Microbusinesses can earn massive LED lighting rebates when located in Xcel Energy territory. Center for Energy and Environment (CEE), a local nonprofit, can help you navigate the rebate process and ensure you earn the highest rebates possible for your LEDs.

Get started by visiting mncee.org/growLED or visit the CEE team at booth 434 during the Minneapolis Lucky Leaf Expo.

Guest Blog: OSHA PPE Requirements & How to Conduct a PPE Hazard Assessment

By Cathy Hovde of Resilient EHS

As the cannabis industry matures, so does the expectation that employers operate with the same level of safety rigor seen in established manufacturing and agricultural sectors. One of the most important, and most frequently misunderstood, compliance responsibilities is Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). Whether you’re running a cultivation facility, an extraction lab, or a retail packaging operation, OSHA requires employers to evaluate workplace hazards and provide appropriate PPE at no cost to workers.

PPE violations consistently rank among OSHA’s most frequently cited standards, and cannabis operations follow the same pattern. Inspectors routinely encounter missing or incomplete hazard assessments, incorrect PPE selection, inadequate training, and failures to provide PPE at no cost, issues that are entirely preventable with a structured program.

But PPE compliance isn’t just about handing out gloves and goggles. It begins with a formal PPE hazard assessment, and it succeeds only when PPE is integrated into a broader, intentional safety culture that evolves with your processes and workforce.

Check out the most recent installment of our series on Protecting Workers in Minnesota’s Cannabis Industry.

READ MORE HERE →

OTHER CANNABIS NEWS

Illinois: Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson vetoed a City Council-approved hemp THC ban, saying that he prefers a regulated market to an outright ban, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Hemp-derived THC products will continue to be sold in Chicago stores.

Mississippi: The MS House of Representatives has passed a bill giving patients the “right to try” medical cannabis if they are suffering from a debilitating medical condition.

Jen's take: While unclear whether this will become law, I am noting it as an interesting way to to help expand access to medical cannabis for people who might benefit from it.

Missouri: Cannabis retailers sold $1.5 billion last year, generating $255 million in tax revenue for the state and local governments. The 2025 cannabis tax revenue is more than six times the amount originally predicted by the State Auditor’s Office, and experts predict that Missouri will surpass $5 billion in total legal cannabis sales sometime this year.

New Hampshire: New Hampshire's Republicans killed a proposal to legalize adult-use there, even though polling found that 70% of New Hampshire residents backed cannabis legalization, including 55% of Republicans.

South Dakota: Prohibitionists in SD have introduced legislation that would repeal the state's medical cannabis law if and when cannabis is moved to Schedule III under federal law. The bill's sponsor said that rescheduling will move cannabis "into a category of basically medicine," and the proposal seeks to align the state with that movement

Jen's take: This is a new flavor of restricting access. The administrative process of rescheduling will not create any new way for South Dakotans to obtain cannabis, at least in the near term.

GreenState published a thoughtful story from Mitchell Colbert, "When immigration enforcement collides with legal weed". An excerpt I found chilling:

The New York Times Editorial Board calls for federal cannabis reform (!) and thinks too many people smoke weed in a Feb. 9 editorial, “It’s Time for America to Admit That It Has a Marijuana Problem.”

Jeremy Berke of Cultivated did a thoughtful rebuttal, entitled "The NYT's editorial on cannabis is bad policy journalism" (free subscription required).

Adding to my To Watch list: Join the Club, a new documentary that tells the story of Dennis Peron and the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club, widely considered the nation’s first public medical marijuana dispensary. GreenState published an article about the documentary.

Confidential Industry Classifieds

• A social equity Retail license in preliminary approval is interested in selling to the right buyer.

• A real estate agent reports that he is working to fill two approved spaces for cannabis cultivation in the south metro. One space is about 12,000/SF and the other around 6,000/SF.

• A broker reports that a group with retail in several locations that have local approvals (in capped markets) is looking to sell ownership due to bandwidth and funding issues.

• A broker is offering mezzo (non-SEA), mezzo SEA, and micro licenses for sale.

Contact Jen at [email protected] to be connected to the poster for more information on any of these opportunities. Note: These are not projects of North Star Cannabis Consulting.

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