Minnesota’s Recreational Marijuana Law
Minnesota’s recreational marijuana law as of August 1, 2023
Welcome Minnesota visitor and/or newly curious cannabis prospective consumer. Here’s what you need to know about Minnesota’s Recreational Marijuana Law.
- You must be 21 or older to buy or be in possession of marijuana or any cannabis/hemp-derived products.
- Legal retail sale of recreational marijuana (flower) won’t happen until summer 2024 at the earliest, but at least one source says first quarter of 2025.
- It will be legal to buy and possess marijuana flower, concentrates, topicals and edible products.
- The sale and possession of immature cannabis plants and seeds, as well as hemp-derived THC products is legal.
- You may have on your person or transport up to two ounces of cannabis flower, up to 8 grams of cannabis concentrates, and/or edibles containing up to a total of 800 milligrams of THC.
- You may also keep up to two pounds of marijuana at home.
- You can only use/smoke cannabis products in private residences or on private property, including out in your yard, as long as it is not accessible to the public. Business can also allow use/consumption on their property or at a licensed event.
- You may NOT vape or smoke cannabis in a multifamily housing building, unless you are a registered medical cannabis patient.
- The consumption of cannabis is prohibited everywhere that isn’t explicitly mentioned above, which includes in your car, on school property and in correctional facilities.
- People 21 and older can grow up to eight cannabis plants per residence, with no more than four being mature and flowering at a time. Your plants may be grown indoors or outdoors, but they must be kept in an enclosed, locked space that is not accessible to or even in view of the public.
- With a few exceptions (e.g. federal jobs, jobs in education, law enforcement, medical caregivers, etc) it is illegal for prospective employers to test job applicants for marijuana. This includes ongoing or random tests.
The 2022 law, A.K.A. how Minnesota’s Recreational Marijuana Law was “accidentally” passed
In 2022, Minnesota legalized recreational use of hemp-derived THC in edibles and beverages.
In an effort get our reading-deficient Republican state legislators to vote for the bill, Dems wrote the bill to be intentionally simple – and a little vague, from a regulatory standpoint. The thinking was that if the bill didn’t say “Legalized Weed For All!” in bold on the front page, Republicans would just vote for it without reading it.
Well, you’ll be shocked to hear it worked and the entire country enjoyed an amusing news cycle talking about how we “accidentally” legalized weed. Fun times.
Minnesota’s legislature is settling on new, more thorough recreational marijuana laws as I write this. But for the moment, here’s Minnesota’s recreational marijuana law as it stands:
People 21 and older can buy hemp-derived THC edibles and beverages with up to 5 milligrams of THC per serving. Packs of edibles can contain no more than 50 milligrams of THC in total.
That’s it. That’s the whole law.
All other forms of cannabis are currently illegal for recreational use, though medical marijuana has been legal since 2014.
If you’re wondering about the unmistakable smell of weed on the streets of Minneapolis, it’s because possession (up to 42.5 grams) has been decriminalized. Technically you can be arrested and charged with a misdemeanor, with a maximum fine of $200, but it seems that enforcement of this is low, assuming you don’t sit on the hood of a cop car and light up.
If you’re wondering which of Minnesota’s hemp-derived edibles are worth your money, I post at least one product review each week.
And if you’re new to these products, I answer a lot of frequently asked questions about how to maximize your buzz with edibles, how to deal with a bad trip and other cannabis topics.
