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MN CANNABIS UPDATES

Minnesota’s Office of Cannabis Management dropped two new Guidance Memos this week, addressing pain points I’ve been hearing from cultivators and operators across the state.

GM-2025-05: Genetics & Metrc Relief

The looming December 1 genetics-in-Metrc deadline? Extended. Instead of a single statewide date, each cultivator will now get their own 30-day window after licensure to bring genetics into Metrc. It also clarifies what counts as an "authorized source" of genetics under Minnesota Rules for the future.

GM-2025-06: Transport to Testing Fix 

Until February 17, 2026, OCM-licensed businesses can self-transport product to and from testing labs. This is a big help given the shortage of licensed transporters. (Though, it only applies to and from testing.)

Guest Blog: What Just Happened to Hemp? How a Federal Shift Threatens Minnesota’s Edibles & Drink Industry 

By Bob and Erin Walloch, owners of CannaJoyMN, a member of the North Star Accelerator

Wednesday night's Federal Hemp Ban Panel hosted by the Minnesota Craft Cannabis Guild at Steady Pour, a clear message emerged: a major federal change just dropped, and it directly threatens Minnesota’s thriving hemp-derived edibles and beverage industry.

(Pictured left to right: Jude Croyle, Carol Moss, Bob Galligan, Kasey Kollross)

If you’re in retail, manufacturing, cultivation (including as a home grower) or consumer, here’s what you need to know.

The federal government quietly reclassified certain hemp-derived cannabinoids in a way that opens the door for CBN, full-spectrum CBD, and potentially other non-intoxicating extracts to be treated like controlled substances. Combined with renewed federal scrutiny of hemp products broadly, the entire low-dose edible and beverage market is now at risk. Seeds are also redefined and included in the ban as well.

And for Minnesota — the state that built the nation’s most successful hemp beverage model — this is a very big deal.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE →

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The good news is that we are seeing the coalitions and strong leadership that will be needed to effectively stop this ban!

Minnesota's lawmakers are mobilizing to work to stop the hemp ban, with Rep. Ilhan Omar (co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus) gathering supporters of a carve-out from the national ban for states that want to regulate cannabinoid products.

Minnesota U.S. Sens. Tina Smith and Amy Klobuchar, alongside a bevy of state and local officials as well as hemp beverage business leaders, held a news conference Monday at the Minnesota Capitol in response to the federal ban. You can watch it here.

And the US Hemp Roundtable put out a proposal for a reasonable national framework. It includes an additional year for the industry to transition (2 years rather than one), a 5mg per serving baseline, and flexibility for states to set their own limits above or below that number. Equally important, it explicitly supports hemp-derived beverages and edibles as legitimate product categories.

OCM Director Eric Taubel and Minnesota Sen. Lindsey Port (D) and Rep. Nolan West (R) (key architects of MN's legalization) appeared on TPT Almanac on Nov. 14 talking about the hemp ban.

Transport Licenses Issued

StayLIT in Burnsville received the first MN transport license last week, and I'm hearing that several more transporters are close. Transport is a key piece of getting the whole system running smoothly.

I talked to a licensed micro-manufacturer last week who said he has a customer order waiting 50 miles away, frozen, waiting for a freezer-truck with a transport license to bring them to him so he can make the vape carts consumers are asking for!

OCM Licensing Progress

What I’m watching:

• 1,143 microbusinesses are now in preliminary approval status! That's a lot of people working to figure out Final Plans of Record.

• We're seeing some of the bigger license types get all the way to licensed: 2 testing facilities, 3 cultivators, 2 mezzos, 2 retailers.

• Still zero delivery services licensed. Hoping to see some of those 10 social equity pre-approved delivery services come online in the remainder of the year.

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