Another House committee approved the marijuana legalization bill in Minnesota.
On Saturday, a seventh panel joined the other six in clearing the proposal and moving it forward. House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler (D), Speaker Melissa Hortman (D), and other lawmakers sponsor the proposal.
The marijuana legalization bill will allow adults 21 and older to purchase and possess up to 1.5 ounces of cannabis. Residents will also be able to cultivate up to eight plants, four of which can be mature.
Just days after the House Judiciary Finance and Civil Law Committee approved the legislation; the House State Government Finance and Elections Committee advanced it with a 7-5 vote. Previously it also advanced through the fifth House committee.
Before the vote took place Winkler said that the goal of the bill is “to end the criminal prohibition of cannabis in Minnesota [and] to acknowledge that the criminal enforcement of cannabis in Minnesota is part of a broader war on drugs that has disproportionately impacted communities of color, especially black Minnesotans.”
The goal is to provide criminal justice reform. People affected by the criminal sanctions from the war on drugs should have the opportunity to have their records expunged. As well as participate in the opportunity of a new cannabis market.
Next, the bill will go through the Education Finance Committee. It is still expected to pass through the remaining panels by April’s end. The bill should have a floor vote sometime in May.
The Future of the Bill
If the proposal does make its way through the House to the Senate, it will be an uphill battle.
The Republican-controlled Senate has indicated that they are more interested in revising the state’s current medical cannabis program than enacting a recreational marijuana proposal.
As more states legalize adult-use marijuana like New York, Winkler said that Minnesota is “falling behind a national movement towards progress”. He took to Twitter to express his concerns saying, “MN has some of the worst criminal justice disparities in the country, and legalizing cannabis & expunging convictions is a first step towards fixing that.”
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